Living With Sin
by Shari Maxwell
Summary: AU Duo Maxwell is a fairly normal teenager... except for the fact that the murder of his mother is still a mystery after two years, that is until recently... Yaoi
1. Chapter 1

Duo couldn't help that he now had this unhealthy obsession... At least that's what Quatre called it when the soda left over in the can began to become solid. It had branched out from years of living alone and out of contact with all of his friends from middle school, and now that he had been put into this private school; it was even worse.

In middle school he had been best friends with Wufei, Quatre, Trowa, and _especially _Heero, but once they it came time to go to high school the started to drift apart. Duo's father had been picky when it came to who he could be friends with, but for some reason he had had a special resentment towards Heero. It had even grown to a point when Duo's father _hated _Heero to such an extent that he had gone up to the school and demanded that any classes they had together, that one of them was to change their schedule.

Their relationship went downhill from there until they were hardly even friends anymore. Heero was quiet and mysterious which attracted attention to him with all the girls in school and even guys who thought it was cool. Duo was also somewhat popular, but it could never compare to Heero except for the fact that girls always loved his braid.

----

The braided boy sighed and rested his cheek on the palm of his hand as he stared out the window that was almost three desks over. The sky was a flawless lapis lazuli blue and there were only a few wisps of clouds that dared to drift lazily into the boy's view. His amethyst eyes were listless until he felt the girl behind him quietly whisper his name to drag his attention from the heavens that lied in wait outside of the prison called school.

The girl giggled lightly as Duo took the note from her hand, and picked up his book some to hide it from the wandering teacher's eyes. He didn't recognize the handwriting that said his name on one of the folded flaps of the paper, but opened it anyway knowing there was nothing better to do anyway. The note was scribbled as if in a hurry, but Duo couldn't see any reason for anyone acting so rushed when their teacher probably wouldn't have noticed since he was beginning to bore himself to death with his own lecture.

All it was a couple of lines that Duo guessed was from one kid who had just transferred to their school yesterday. It read: _Are you really the guy who murdered your own mother? _

The young American was suddenly filled with a powerful loathing for the new boy, and responded with a brief but self-explanatory comment about whether he felt like answering the question or not. In response, all Duo wrote was: _Fuck off._

He passed it back and under the desk so that nobody even noticed that they were doing anything at all. He heard the crumpling of paper and a low growl that showed the kid thought he was real tough shit. Unfortunately, that was about the time that their teacher finally paid some attention to what his class was _really _doing instead of paying attention to what he was teaching.

"Would you like to read that note to the class, Duo?"

With the same indifferent attitude that he had began to use often, he snatched the wrinkled note from the boy's hands and read it, "Are you really the guy who murdered your own mother? Fuck off."

He then crumpled the note once again and sat down while all the kids stared at him in shock or disbelief that he wasn't in the least bit humiliated by what he had said. Even their teacher was at a loss for words for a few moments, but he recovered before anyone else in class did.

"Duo, please refrain from using that sort of language in my class and-" He was cut off as the bell rang, signaling them to hurry on to their next class and either be put to sleep by some more lectures, or maybe relax in study hall, or maybe go to their electives.

Nobody said a word to Duo as he left the room, and all the people who had heard him stayed far away from him even in the crowded hallway. Instead of heading to study hall like he was supposed to, he went outside the school and to the back where nobody ever seemed to go while school was in progress. The brunette leaned against the wall and pulled out a cigarette and lighter.

Recently smoking had been the only thing that kept him from getting too anxious, but he knew that his parents would kill him if only they knew. Every once in a while there were some other kids that came out for a smoke, or would beg him for a cigarette which he would gladly have them pay about five dollars just for three cigarettes. At other times, he was just alone like today, but it didn't bother him one bit; in fact it gave him more time to think things over while he tried to sort out more of his issues.

He was actually _passing _most of his classes in school except for two, which was English and history since he found the two subjects boring but he could always raise his grade and pass for the semester when it came close to midterms and such. His father had been pressuring him a lot lately to raise his grades since it was still only his freshman year, and he was hoping that Duo would start drawing attention of colleges for scholarships.

"Hey Maxwell, got a free smoke you can just lend me?" Who would've guessed that one of the most popular girls in school would always come to him for a smoke? After all, it seemed like such an impossible scenario for most to imagine Hilde doing.

"'Course, why wouldn't I give _you _one?" He snagged one from the pack in his pocket, and she used his lighter to light it before taking a long drag. Duo watched her in an uninterested manner, but had nothing better to stare at, "I thought you only came on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays? What's with the sudden change in your routine?"

"Haven't you heard? They're transferring all the new kids over here from that old school they had to tear down since there's something constantly wrong with their foundation." Hilde watched as Duo tried to remember when anyone had mentioned that happening, but kept drawing up a blank, "They warned us yesterday that they were coming _tomorrow_."

The braided boy didn't seem to take much heed to what she was saying, and just gazed out into the distance at the buildings and maze of alleys behind the school. After he finished his cigarette, he stamped it out with his foot and scooted it closer to the building where nobody would really notice it. Just as his study hall ended, he entered the school again went to his next class which was just as boring as the last but he figured someone would notice if he skipped two classes.

----

When the final bell rang to dismiss all of the students so they could finally go home, Duo was one of the first to hurry up and leave. He quickly headed into the network of alleys and made his way home in less that ten minutes, since he was such an expert on the whole alley system in the city. Most of his summers were spent exploring the city while his father was either at work or on business trips, and it was all unbeknownst to his father. He arrived home and first thing he did was pet the two stray cats that he had sort of adopted and that now took refuge in his garage.

He could see his father's car through the garage window, and found himself surprised that he wouldn't be home alone for the whole afternoon. It was unusual that his father got home any earlier than six but this had set the record. When Duo walked in, the first thing he saw was his father arguing with someone on the phone but stopped when he saw his son. He mumbled a quick apology and asked for the person to call him back later, and hung up.

"How're you today, son?" His voice was trying to fake sweetness, but it didn't work and only made his father sound even more pissed, "I have some bad news about your school..."

"What's that?" Duo asked, not really caring what his father was going to tell him, "Are they going to try to expel me again?"

"No it's not that, but I've heard about all those kids coming to your school... And I also heard that one of them was that wretched Heero boy who used to hang around you..." Duo thought he felt his heart stop when he heard the name Heero.

For the past year, neither of them had spoken to each other because of the different high schools, but that also meant that Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei would be there as well since the four of them had gone to the same school. It was such a shock, that Duo was actually rendered speechless and went straight to his room so he could just think the whole thing over.

Duo closed his door, and locked it before he started wading his way through all the junk that had come to be his room. It took him a minute before he could lay down on his bed and actually start to be able to think of _Heero _actually going to _his school_. After a whole year of not having contact with any of his friends, he knew they'd probably be different and might not really be too accepting of him suddenly wanting to be friends again, but he had the feeling Heero wouldn't feel that way at all.

"I can't tell whether I want this moment to last forever... or for it to hurry up and be tomorrow..." Duo laughed at what he said, it was the first time he'd actually laughed in months. This was going to be the year that got Duo's life back on track, and he couldn't wait for him to come out of the depression that he had fallen so deeply into.

His amethyst eyes once again danced as he started to reminisce about middle school and all the fun times the five of them used to have together. This seemed like a dream come true to Duo, or a fairy tale that was finally about to reach the happily-ever-after part of the book. As he began to imagine what the next day would be like, his cell phone suddenly started to ring loudly and made him snap out of his trance.

At that moment, he felt like just throwing the damn thing out the window but he went ahead and answered it without bothering to really see _who _was calling him. As he rudely answered, there was an cold voice that began to talk to him.

"So you think your life will become happy again?" The voice laughed at him and Duo could only stand there before he realized who it was, "I guess it's time I bring you back to reality about why you were torn apart from your friends and then what happened to your poor mother..."

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Without realizing it, Duo really _had _thrown his cell phone but luckily it wasn't out the window but just across the room.

He was panting and he glared at the phone as it lay open on his floor. It was the same voice that had been haunting him for years, ever since his mother had been killed that man had called him trying to make his life a living hell, and had succeeded with ease; especially after Duo had been left by his friends. That same man didn't have a name, and Duo still didn't have any idea who he was but the man hadn't called for three months and the braided boy had forgotten all about him.

Now, he was back.

----

**Hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, and I promise that by tomorrow I will update with the second chapter. Anyway, I hope it was believable and decent!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	2. Chapter 2

After a while, Duo finally went over to the phone and picked it up to see whether the man had hung up yet or not. There was still the sounds of someone either speaking or it was just Duo's overactive imagination at work that had combined with his paranoia. He grabbed the phone and shut it, but before anyone had the chance to call he turned it off and tossed it onto his bed. After watching it bounce a couple of times before coming to a rest, he was startled when his father started knocking on his door.

"Duo, are you alright? I heard you shouting a minute ago... Is someone in there?" His father cracked the door a bit and then opened it all the way when Duo just turned away and sat down in his computer chair.

His father's emerald green eyes shone with genuine worry as he watched his son, but all Duo knew was how uncomfortable he felt by looking into those eyes. Everyone had always told him he had his mother's eyes, and yet he had never really noticed it until after she had died. Even years later it bothered Duo whenever his father watched him as he was doing; just getting stared at made him feel guilty or like he had something weighing heavily on his conscience.

"I'm really alright, just go talk do some more of work... Do you want me to order some Chinese?" The braided boy was hoping desperately that he could change the subject without his father being suspicious of him. Apparently it worked as his father nodded and left the room without saying anything.

It was another few moments before he got up and went to the kitchen to use the phone in there; he decided to not use his cell phone because he had a feeling that the man would call back if he turned it on. As he neared the neat-freak clean kitchen, Duo stopped and noticed the picture of his mother on the mantel of their fireplace.

He picked up the picture and started to study all of the intricate details of it. He looked like an almost _exact _copy of his mother with her amethyst eyes and long brunette hair. Her hair had been long and on the day of that picture she had let it hang freely around her waist, and his father was in the picture as well looking happy. Duo actually couldn't remember that last time his father had smiled the way he did in the photo, and he also noticed that they had never gone to that park since his mother died.

Duo put the photo down and went back towards the kitchen and looked for the menus they usually had stashed somewhere near to the phone. He found them all and thumbed through them until he found the Chinese place with the best food in the whole city; after all his father wouldn't mind paying a _little _extra for such exquisite food.

He quickly dialed the number, and ordered the food without even pausing for breath which made him wonder whether the woman had gotten their whole order down. When she repeated it, she had gotten everything so Duo decided not to let it worry him if they forgot about an egg roll or something.

When he hung up the phone, he noticed that the house had fallen into an eerie silence and he began to feel it overpowering him. Duo started to go back to his room, but stopped when something on their beige carpet caught his eye. He looked back towards the door where his father's room was, and saw something similar to blood. As he went closer to examine it, he found it was nothing more than an illusion; once again caused by his paranoia.

The braided boy quickly went back to his room before he could be given the chance to create more hallucinations, and almost slammed the door once he was in. He couldn't explain this sudden fear that was beginning to overtake his every last nerve, the sense of foreboding that was telling him something or someone was watching him.

"Nobody's watching me... Why would they want to?" Duo tried to calm himself down, "After all, I'm just some kid who's started going downhill in life... Who the hell would be so interested in me they'd be watching me right now?"

As his own words began to take affect and calm him, the doorbell rang. It actually rang about _twelve times _because the impatient delivery person was waiting on Duo to hurry up. He snagged some of the money from what his father had left to pay for the food. When he had finally sauntered over to the door, the heard an irritated sigh from what sounded like a man.

"Geez, don't you guys have _any _patience?" Duo asked as he opened the door to reveal that it was Wufei who was delivering it, "Wufei? _You're _a delivery boy?"

"Shut it Maxwell, how many jobs do you think a fifteen year old can get?" Wufei snapped at the brunette but couldn't hold back a smile as Duo hugged him. He did begin to push away when Duo's father came around the corner with either an angry or surprised expression, but Wufei couldn't tell which it was. "Maybe I should leave..."

Duo's father had reached the door by then, and was gesturing for him to come inside, "Don't be silly... Wufei, was it?"

Wufei nodded slowly, distrust was shining in his jet black eyes but he still entered the house and began to uncomfortably make his way to the living room. He still seemed familiar with the house even though it had been such a long time since he had been inside. He looked around the place as if it was his first time ever seeing a house like Duo's, but there was also something about how the Chinese boy was acting that made Duo think he was also _afraid _of this room for some reason.

"Do you feel ill?" Duo's father asked with a kind tone that was obviously fake, but neither Duo nor Wufei would say anything about it, "If you do, you can always lie down in Duo's room and I'll just call the restaurant to ask if you could take the night off."

"No, I'll be fine... I was just so surprised that this place looked exactly as I had remembered from two years ago. It's almost as if time has stood still here..." Duo realized that he must be remembering the first time that all of his friends had been invited over because his mother had thought it would be nice for Duo to finally be with his friends on the weekend.

Both father and son had the same pained expression, but they were both experienced in hiding that pain from others so it was only a quick moment that it happened. Duo walked over to Wufei and took the food from him gently and then set it on the dining room table. He stared at Wufei as if expecting him to come sit automatically, and Duo figured that was because he hadn't seen any of his _real _friends in so long.

"I've got some calls I have to make, so I'll just take my dinner with me to my study." Duo's father snatched on of the take-out trays and went up the staircase and disappeared into the hallway.

"Is he upset that I came here?" Wufei asked as he seemed to watch the top of the staircase.

"Nah, you were always his favorite anyway."

The Chinese boy didn't seem to need an explanation for that since he had always be the most polite to Duo's father and mother. Not to mention, he was also from a _very _rich family. Although, Duo hadn't thought of his father only liking Wufei for that reason at first, but now he really realized just how rich Wufei was.

"I heard about what happened to your mother... and I'm truly sorry. I've also heard about some of the rumors floating around recently, and most of them are saying that _you _killed her. But I don't believe that and I'm not sure how anyone who knows you could think that." Wufei sat down on one of the comfy ebony dining chairs and Duo did the same.

"You've been gone for almost a year and a half... You haven't seen the kind of person I've become. I actually _prefer _that people say all that shit they do since people will leave me alone then." The braided boy refused to meet his friend's eyes and was suddenly interested in observing all there was about the carpet. "Maybe if my father hadn't been hell-bent to separate me from you guys... Maybe I could've turned out different."

"Duo, don't talk like that. You make it sound as if everything in your life is final and there are no more choices for you to make, but you're wrong. We're still young and now that we're coming back we can help you get your life back on track." Wufei offered a comforting hand on his shoulder, but was quickly brushed off.

"I don't need people to come and try and correct what I've done wrong. I'm happy with how I am now..." Duo hadn't realized until then that he was contradicting his own thoughts from only an hour ago. "Won't you get in trouble for being late? It's been almost half an hour since you got here and I don't want you to be in trouble for being late to get back."

Wufei took the hint and stood up to make a beeline for the door. As he was leaving, he handed him a slip of paper that had his phone number on it along with three others; it didn't take a genius to figure out who all the numbers belonged to and then Wufei was gone.

Duo closed the door and double locked it, once again that feeling of insecurity and paranoia was coming back now that Wufei had left. He grabbed the Styrofoam container and carried it up to his room. He sat at his desk and opened the tray to find the food was still warm enough to enjoy. As he began to eat, he turned on his laptop next to him and as it was booting he ate all of his food before it even reached the log in screen.

Duo threw the empty container in the trash can beside the desk and typed in his password. After the computer finished loading all of the files and checking for virus threats, he was finally able to log onto his e-mail. As soon as the window popped up, there was an e-mail from Hilde and also from website that sold all kinds of crap that wanted him to buy from them.

He scanned over Hilde's e-mail which read:

_Duo,_

_Remember all those rich morons are coming tomorrow, and don't go behind the school to smoke. It would be just your luck to get caught by a teacher checking around for a lost student. _

_Also, I heard that you had some friends over at that school where everyone's got a damn stick up their ass? Is that true? Or is it just more rumors spreading because someone just felt like making up shit like that?_

_Love, _

_Hilde_

Sighing, Duo replied quickly with by saying she had told him earlier that day. Another thing he put on there was he _used _to know kids who went to that school, but they had stopped talking about a year and a half ago. He tried to imagine Hilde being the motherly, overprotective type from what she sent in the e-mail, but still couldn't see her having kids in the future.

He quickly went surfing the internet to find some information on who was coming to his school tomorrow and sure enough when he looked over the lists there was Trowa Barton, Wufei Chang, Quatre Winner, and Heero Yuy. He then got off the internet, but left his laptop on since he couldn't think of a real reason to turn it off. It was then that he finally decided that he would go to bed when it was almost midnight, and knew that he would be irritated when he woke up the next morning.

----

**Hope everyone liked this chapter as much as you liked the first! And just so you know, this series is going to turn into 1x2 eventually but you'll have to wait a few more chapters! **

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**

**Oh! And Happy Holidays!**


	3. Chapter 3

As the sunlight swept into the ordinary bedroom and paused to wake up the sleeping brunette. He tried hard to make the sun leave him alone and even pulled the black comforter over his head to deflect the rays of gold, but the alarm clock joined into the fight and began to play music from one of the many local radio stations. The song was loud and the singers basically screamed the whole song when Duo finally surrendered, and slammed his hand on the snooze button.

Duo sat up and squinted his amethyst eyes into the sun before practically tripping over himself to pull down the cheap blinds on his window. The plastic hit the window sill with an angry thump, but the braided boy didn't listen to it. Instead he sauntered over to the walk in closet and pulled out an outfit he always wore since it always had seemed to suit his mood.

It was a black cotton shirt with embossed bold letters that were shaded into a deep crimson color, and all that it read was, _'If life isn't worth living, then what makes you think you'll be any happier in death?'_ A demented saying, but at the same time Duo could see it was true, to him at least.

He remembered how much his father hated that shirt, and he threw on a jacket even though it was too hot for it. It didn't matter about his pants, so he just wore a pair of black blue jeans and his usual black boots to make the getup complete. After he had finished dressing, Duo crossed the somewhat spacious room and snatched his brush that had both the soft bristles and plastic ones to attack all the tangles he kept from sleep.

As he hastily eliminated all knots from his long auburn hair, Duo then rummaged through the fridge for something to at least fill him to lunch when he could leave the campus to get some decent food. All he found was some of the left over food from almost three days ago, and discarded the molding rice with disgust.

"When was the last time someone actually went grocery shopping around here?" Finally Duo managed to find some fruit that wasn't rotting and grabbed a tangerine to wash off any pesticides, "I really have to get something after school..."

"You wouldn't mind?" Duo's father asked as he walked in and grabbed his wallet and car keys, "I haven't got the time and I have to stay really late today. Those idiots are completely screwing everything up, and they have to turn to me to fix it all..."

Duo sighed knowing this would just turn into one of his father's famous rants about how all his co-workers couldn't even figure out where their own asses are, and he just didn't feel like he was in the mood to listen to it. He intended for his day to go as flawlessly as possible, which meant that nothing his father could say or do would ruin this glorious moment, "I'm heading out to school, see ya later!"

"You aren't leaving early to go meet that Heero boy, are you?" His father's emerald eyes had locked with Duo's confused amethyst ones, "So you already forgot?"

The braided boy couldn't believe he actually _had _forgotten all about his four friends arriving at his school that day. His hand was on the door knob and he was wavering between the decision to just skip school or rush over there to greet the new students that just yesterday he couldn't wait to see. After Wufei's visit though, it had made Duo really reconsider whether he would enjoy the company of his old friends like he had always thought he would.

"Of course not... I'm not even really sure I want to see them that much anyway..." The young American had almost escaped when his father caught him by the shoulder with a grip Duo had never expected, "Something wrong?"

"I'll warn you now... Stay away from Heero. That boy is nothing but trouble and just a sick little gay faggot, and I don't want him to traumatize you in any way." Duo's father released his shoulder which almost felt as if there was a bruise just from those few seconds, "The only boys I really trust is Wufei and that little Quatre Winner."

Duo tried not to show that he already knew _exactly _why his father didn't mind him hanging around those kids, but he did mind Heero and Trowa. He gave his trademark grin and made a mock salute goodbye. Without another glance and not speaking another word Duo shut the door and hurried down the porch steps and over to the sidewalk. He knew it would lead him back through his secret network of alleys to the back of the school building, but this time he took his time.

Along the way, he grabbed a cigarette from the secret pocket in his messenger bag and lit it. The braided boy knew he would make it to school on time as long as he didn't stop to enjoy his smoke; he kept reminding himself it was only for his anxiety as he neared the large building. From the angle Duo was looking at, the school looked like a prison that none of the convicts arrested could ever break out of, but Duo knew many ways to escape the place.

From the shadow he had hidden in, Duo could see Hilde who was also outside and finishing up her own smoke. Her dark clothes stood out against the white concrete style of the building, but as one of their gym coaches passed her by he didn't even realize what she could've been doing. All he did was gesture for her to go to the other side of the building and then went off to where the buses dropped off kids.

Duo could feel himself hesitating as he stepped out from the shadows and into the blinding sunlight. All he could really see was the school buses turning the corner and none of them were numbers he recognized as regulars at this school. He grinned and tried his best not to let his false confidence fail him now.

"Hey Hilde... I thought you were telling _me _not to take my chances out here." The brunette stared into his friend's dark sapphire eyes as she gave her own little smirk.

"Girls are always more innocent than boys are, so nobody's gonna suspect me of doing anything wrong." Hilde looked around the corner curiously before looking back at her friend, "Anyway, they wanted some of us to go greet the new snobs... and they picked me. But I heard that they also picked you to escort some boys around here."

Duo had completely forgotten about his cigarette, but he dropped it when he was suddenly burnt by it, "Shit!"

Hilde had already left while Duo just flicked the cigarette into his little area of abandoned stubs. The braided boy turned the corner as well and headed towards the front where there was about thirty lost looking guys and girls staring disapprovingly at their new school. Duo didn't know how long he would manage to talk to these strangers without losing his temper, but he vowed to try his hardest not to.

"Alright Coach, who do I get?"

"Them over there," the coach wasn't really paying too much attention to Duo, but he did seem to know who he was pointing to. "I heard you knew a couple of 'em, so I let you escort 'em around."

It was then that Duo knew he wouldn't live to see the next day, as he looked into the steel blue eyes that had invaded his dreams ever since a year and a half ago. Heero Yuy wasn't easily mistaken for anyone, especially when he stood out in the very front of the crowd, like a tiger waiting to pounce on its prey.

"Coach, why not another group?" Duo could feel Heero's eyes burning into the back of his head as he started arguing with the old man about who he wanted to give a tour.

"Take 'em Maxwell, or I swear I'll suspend ya!" The coach turned away from the still debating Duo and ignored him until he had no choice but to take the group he'd been assigned to.

"Fucking old geezer... swear I'll get back at him for this..." He put on a grin as he approached the group of haughty boys and the four pairs of eyes that were watching him with a knowing gaze. "Don't you all just look so _thrilled _to be here? I can tell you I just love this vomit-inducing place and every corner with some freakin' cockroach nest in it!"

He was hoping that maybe they would reconsider coming to this school if they got the idea it was a disgusting place to be, but only a few boys looked affected by what the American had tried on them. So he just rolled his eyes and waved at them to follow him into the double doors with its red paint beginning to chip off.

"So what's your name anyway?" One of the boys asked, and Duo turned to see him snicker and point at his braid with his friends, "Are you like their gay mascot, or something?"

"No, that's somebody else, I'm actually the guy who supposedly murdered my own mom." He smiled as their snickering turned into a look of utter revulsion, "And if you guys don't like me, then you can go complain about getting away from me since that's what most kids are trying to do nowadays."

Murmurs floated amongst the boys for quite a while but then stopped abruptly as he began approaching some of their classes. Most of the boys kind of drifted into classrooms until the only group left was Heero, Quatre, Wufei, and Trowa following behind Duo. He felt nervous as one of their hands reached over and gently rested on his shoulder.

"Duo, can we-" It was Heero, but the American was lucky and the five of them were coming up to their classroom.

"Here we are!" Duo quickly cut off the slightly taller boy as he grabbed the door and flung it open to his surprised biology teacher, "Sorry we're late, but some of the guys were kinda lost and it took a while for them to figure out where they were supposed to go."

The biology teacher looked at the five of them with annoyance on her slim face, but she assigned the four new boys seats. Duo was just grateful that Heero hadn't ended up his partner at his table. Instead, Wufei and Heero had were partners and Trowa and Quatre took up another table, but there was still the question of who had ended up Duo's partner after all of the rearranging of seats.

As it turned out, it was the boy who had been transferred yesterday and had written him a note during his history period. Apparently the new guy's name was Keith, and he wasn't too happy with how he had been treated yesterday. Without showing the worry that had began to gather inside of him, Duo tried to look as calm as possible with the boy looming over him.

"So, you think it's fun to fuck with other people Maxwell?" Duo already could feel himself seething with spite at Keith, and wondered why the hell had the guy wanted to make him a target, "After all, you don't seem to mind what other people think about you, so why don't you come over to my place after school and we can get better acquainted?"

Duo felt the boy lightly tug on his braid, and he had to restrain himself from lashing out. His braid was _untouchable _unless he said so, but apparently Heero had caught what the boy was doing and threw something at Keith. It grazed right across his left cheek and almost hit the kid sitting in front, but Heero's aim didn't ever seem to falter.

All he had to do was glare at Keith, and the guy immediately tried to intimidate him back. Keith mouthed something that Duo could clearly tell, he was asking if he was Heero's fuck buddy. Then Heero said something unexpected back, with a quick growl Keith shut up and didn't even glance at Heero the rest of the period.

There was a time though, that Duo could've sworn he felt Keith's large hand brush across his back so he could quickly give a light tug to his braid. Every time he thought that was what the other boy was doing he always looked with the corner of his eye and could see that Keith couldn't possibly be doing it. It only just occurred that maybe his own eyes were deceiving him, but as the bell rang he quickly stood up and didn't bother to hang behind for his old friends.

They're _old _friends. Part of him that couldn't be revived and Duo didn't want anyone to try.

----

**So what did ya'll think? I honestly hope that the quality of the chapters hasn't gone down to drastically... Though from now on it might take me a little longer to write the chapters. Just a warning for you readers, but I promise it's not gonna take me like two months or anything. That I will make sure not to do.**

**Anyway, I'd love for any reviews, concrit, or (if you feel the need) flames. Even though flames are my least favorite things to read, I'll understand what you readers are thinking and whether I ought to really change anything in this series.**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	4. Chapter 4

Somehow Duo had managed to escape everybody, and he didn't really care whether the group of kids he had been _assigned _to show around got lost or not. He wasn't in the mood to talk about middle school or what the hell he had meant when he was talking about murdering his mother, nobody from his old group of friends knew about what had happened. Maybe they had heard rumors, or when there had been headlines about a teenager who had killed his mom in the newspaper, but none of them had even heard his side of the story.

All the reporters and even police officers had said he was making up excuses for what he had done, yet no one had even really _listened _to him. Duo was going to make sure that Heero didn't bring up those memories anymore and decided he felt like skipping school altogether instead of sticking around. Of course he couldn't leave without having a cigarette, just to be on the safe side and to be certain that his father didn't see him behind the house.

The brunette pulled out a cigarette and lit it without even thinking about it. He would try not to waste too much of this pack since he was going to need a whole lot more over the next few days or even weeks of enduring the four boys.

The American sighed and leaned against the wall, not noticing as Heero stood only a few yards away watching. He did notice when Heero suddenly plucked the cigarette from his lips only to waste it by throwing it down and crushing it under his heel. Duo glared at the Japanese boy, but decided that he didn't feel like confronting Heero and turned away.

"Smoking is bad for you... And I never thought I'd see _you _of all people I know doing it." Cobalt blue eyes burned a hole into Duo's back while his words destroyed what little bit of his conscience wasn't consumed by guilt.

"You don't know what kind of hell I've been living with Heero... You've got both your parents who both care about you, but don't try to control you. If you hadn't heard, my mom died a while back or most people believe I murdered her," Duo kept staring over in the direction of where he knew his house was, and his sanctuary. "I don't really feel like talking to you, since all you should be is a ghost of my once happy past. Our friendship ended long ago, and I don't want you to do anything to make me remember what I used to have."

Heero was silent for a few moments as Duo began to walk away, but knew he couldn't just let the braided boy walk away thinking everything he had said was true. "I have heard what happened to your mother, and I did read the old newspapers with you headlining as 'the boy who got off scot-free even though it was obvious he was guilty', but you don't honestly think I believed that, do you? I knew you better than anyone else ever had, and I don't think you changed all that much from who you were."

Heero was surprised as Duo whirled around and just flipped him off before he began running down to the alley network he always used to get home. There were no footsteps to signal he was being followed, so he continued to run without thinking there would be any way Heero could pursue him through the alleys. But he also knew somewhere in the back of his mind that it wasn't that easy to lose the stubborn boy, even if he wasn't chasing him Heero would still be able to memorize most of the route he would take and probably only take him another minute to figure out the whole way to his house.

"Why can't I have any fucking normal friends?" Duo turned another corner that didn't lead to his house, but led towards the grocery store that was about three blocks from his house, "I'll just take my time shopping and hopefully Heero won't try coming in here to make me show him where my house is..."

It wasn't until he looked at the clock did he realize that he still had about five hours before school officially let out students, but he didn't know whether Heero had gone back to find his next class or really had followed him. Duo didn't feel like lingering around the store anymore, so hurried and bought some junk for him to snack on and a couple of things he could try making for dinner. He'd been desperately trying to learn how to cook, and so far he was getting better with the help of his mother's old cookbook.

He went into another aisle to grab the last item on his mental list, but before he could get what he needed Heero came into the aisle from the other side. They stared at each other, before Duo started to walk towards him.

He quickly snatched the item off the shelf before walking straight past the boy, "What the hell are you doing here? You're a stalker now?"

There was no reply from Heero, but it didn't bother Duo all that much since he had always remembered his Japanese friend to be quiet. He just quickly got all of his stuff checked out and paid for it, and then left with Heero behind him. The two teens received some looks of disapproval from some people on the street along with people in their cars, but they continued into Duo's somewhat rich neighborhood all the way to his house.

"You live here now? I thought you used to live in a smaller house in the next neighborhood over." Heero asked the braided boy, but got a response he had not expected.

"It's because Mom is dead... That's why we have all this money now, because my supposed father has nothing better to do now than work." Duo pulled out his key and unlocked the front door, he could feel his heart beginning to race as he thought of Heero coming into his room and them being all alone in the house. "Are you gonna come in? Or are you gonna go to your own house?"

-------

Heero looked around the living room and felt an unusual sense of bereavement when he saw the picture of Duo's mother. That's why the place felt so empty and desolate, it was because she wasn't there to light up the room. Duo led him into the kitchen so that he could put up all the food he bought and a couple of other things as well.

Duo let Heero sit down at the dining table in the next room (no wall between), and his cobalt blue eyes observed as he went about his task. There was something else he was looking that besides him just going from cabinet to cabinet to the fridge; he was watching his friend's braid as it swung teasingly near his ass. The American probably wouldn't even notice it since it was just natural for his hair to do, and it had probably happened for so many years.

"You thirsty? Or hungry?" Duo asked over his shoulder and when he didn't get a reply, he looked back to find Heero staring at him strangely. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Heero looked away, making sure that there was no sign of embarrassment or guilt on his face. "Nothing, I just thought there was something in your hair..."

When he looked back, there really _was _something stuck in Duo's braid and as Duo felt around he found something sticky. It was one of the worst things to ever happen in Heero's life, or at least the worst thing at the moment.

Duo began screaming and suddenly ran to the bathroom which was next to the stair, and also next to the entrance hall. As Heero ran to the bathroom door (which Duo had locked as he was now practically hysterical) he tried to get Duo to unlock the door. While he was busy doing that, he hadn't heard Duo's father come in and stop right behind him.

"_What _did you do to my son?!?"

Heero didn't know what to say, so he just dodged Duo's father and ran out the door. He ran out of the neighborhood and didn't stop until he had reached the alleys Duo had used earlier. It hadn't been the smartest thing to do, but it had been the first time Heero had actually felt panicked and it was all because of the look in that man's eyes.

"I'm in real deep shit now..."

-------

Duo hadn't expected his father to be in a rage when he finally came out of the bathroom after finally getting the gum out of his hair (thankfully it hadn't been there long enough to where it was impossible to get out). He knew that it was probably about Heero, but when his father stopped to ask if he was alright... that's when he became confused.

"What do you mean am I _alright_? I thought you were just mad Heero was here."

"He hurt you, didn't he? I'll kill the little fucker and I swear that his parents are gonna regret having that little fag for a son!"

Duo gaped at his father, and that he thought Heero would actually _hurt _him? It was like saying flying pigs were going to bring the apocalypse; it just wasn't possible unless it was unintentional.

"No Dad, it was just this idiot at school got gum stuck in my hair and I freaked out when Heero told me it was there." It was obvious that Duo's father was reluctant to believe the story, so Duo went and got the miniature trashcan out of the bathroom. He showed his father the evidence of the true crime, "Satisfied now?"

Once again, his father didn't seem to want to believe what his son was telling him, but had no choice. He stalked off to the kitchen before suddenly turning around and staring at Duo and then back at the clock. "Why are you home so early anyway?"

"I... uh..." The brunette racked his brain for a brilliant excuse, but found he wasn't able to find one. "I was feeling really sick and when I told the nurse nobody was home, she asked me if I wanted to call you on your cell. I told her no and I just walked home."

"So you were sick enough to leave school, but not so sick that you couldn't stop by the store first?" His father incredulous look as he motioned towards the restocked cabinets, "Tell me the truth Duo, why did you skip school _again_?"

"If you haven't fucking noticed, I HATE MY LIFE! I always wondered if you were just too obsessed with your work to notice me after Mom died, and that's exactly it. You make yourself work so much just so you don't feel depressed about Mom, and then you completely forgot about me!" Duo kept the tears from falling as he went up to his room, trying to keep calm and not show how truly upset and hurt he was by his father's treatment towards him.

-------

Heero entered his house and expected his parents to greet him angrily, but there was no one there. He slipped off his shoes and walked into the kitchen where his mother was making dinner, while his father was still at work.

"Heero? Why are you home so early?" It wasn't until then that Heero had actually thought about what time it was. "Did they let you leave early since you're a new student?"

"Yeah, it was just for today though." He figured a little fib wouldn't hurt anyone and especially since his mother had suggested it first, "I'll be in my room if you need me."

He went down the hall and into his room, making sure that the door was locked, Heero then walked over to his laptop and turned it on. He knew that there was something bothering him about Duo's case with his mother. When he had first heard about the murder of Katherine Maxwell, of course he had been shocked to hear they accused Duo of it. Yet now there was something else that was bothering him about the murder, and Heero knew all the right resources to hack into so he could find out.

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Well, what did you guys think? I hope this chapter was just as good as the previous ones because I was working hard on it (I swear!). And I just want to apologize to you guys for waiting patiently for this chapter to come, and I promise that it won't happen again! I promise I will not leave everyone waiting for chapter five like I did for this chapter.

Please R & R !

Shari Maxwell


	5. Chapter 5

"Duo, come out of your room right now! You're really pushing the limits now, and if you push me any farther you're gonna regret it!" Duo's father was practically breaking down Duo's door in his rage. "Open this fucking door now!"

Duo couldn't believe what his father was doing, but he had planned something in case he had to make a hasty escape. There was something that made him hesitate though, the teen suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia as his memory began to dig up something he had suppressed. There was someone screaming, and it was making his head pound so he hit the woman he beat her until there was no longer any sound. He looked towards the once beige carpet now stained a sickening crimson.

It was his mother... no, this obviously wasn't his memory. Whoever's memory this was had cared for his mother in a much different way than he did, as more of a source for stress relief. That was when the reminiscing in the someone else's past ended, and unfortunately that was also the time that Duo's father had finally gotten through the door. Duo suddenly panicked and curled up into a ball trying to protect himself, but nothing happened. There was no more yelling, no more thundering footsteps... there was just nothing...

Amethyst eyes carefully peeked from behind his pale arms, to find that his father was not even there anymore. But there was a man in his stead, he had short tawny hair and stunning sapphire eyes that had a hypnotizing quality to them. He spoke in a soothing tone, as if not to scare Duo away like a frightened animal, but his voice seemed to set Duo off instead.

"Duo Maxwell, please don't move. You could seriously hurt yourself jumping from a window on the second story, and that's the last thing I want to happen." The man took a few steps toward Duo, but the teen swiftly jumped up and swung his leg outside the window. There was a small covering for the front porch directly below his window, but he wouldn't be able to slow his momentum towards the ground down at all.

"I don't know who the fuck you are... but tell me what you did with my father _now_." Duo was threatening to jump, and since he had a slight idea of how he could land without hurting himself too bad it wasn't a bluff. Yet the stranger did not make any motion to speak or explain, he seemed to be contemplating exactly what he would benefit for Duo getting injured but seemed unsuccessful. "Stop stalling and fucking tell me where he is!"

That was when something completely impossible happened... _Heero_ was suddenly there to his rescue. But then something even more bizarre happened, and Duo had somehow ended up in his bed. There was no unwelcome visitor there, and there was also no Heero. Duo sat up and found himself in bed with a disturbing calm in his house. He swung his legs carelessly over the edge of his bed, and wandered down the hall to where his father's study was, and he was there just typing away on his computer while fending off some representative from another company. The teen was cautious not to distract him, and stealthily made his way back to his room.

The braided boy couldn't believe that it was all just a dream... It all seemed way too realistic to be nothing more than something his subconscious made while he took a nap, yet that was the only explanation for how nothing he remembered seems to have even occurred. But there was something now that he was also wondering about his dream. The part of the dream when he thought he was seeing someone else's memory, was it real?

"That had to have been real, but then who was I when it was happening?" Duo didn't get any more time to ponder over that when his dad knocked lightly on his open door.

"You feeling okay now? Earlier I could tell you were really furious with me, and for that I must apologize since it was my fault to begin with." His apology seemed sincere, but Duo also knew that he was still guarding himself. Apparently the teen had struck a nerve when he had told he man exactly what he was doing, and how being a workaholic had become number one in his life. "If you want, I'll call the school tomorrow and tell them you're really ill. I'll tell them you'll probably be out the rest of the week, but next week you are going to have to go back."

His father left him, and Duo wished he could just spit in the man's face. That was really the best he could do? Was try to be sympathetic to his own son, and then get away the first chance he got? Duo could honestly say that he was almost to the point of hating the man that was called his biological father.

The teen vehemently slammed the door and stalked over to his desk where his laptop laid with a lit screen warning Duo of a new e-mail. He checked the e-mail address and recognized it as Hilde's address. He wasn't the least bit interested in what the hell the girl had to say, so he just turned the whole computer off with one furious push of the power button. He couldn't really calm himself down at that moment, and because of his unmanageable rage he never was able to see the warning Hilde had been trying to so desperately give him.

----

Heero himself was surprised when his cell phone began vibrating in his pocket to reveal Wufei was calling, and the solemn teen knew that the Chinese teen would only call him in an emergency. He flipped the thin phone open and softly answered to let Wufei know he was there.

"Heero, I don't know where the hell you or Duo went... but he's in deep shit now. I don't know what happened exactly, but there are at least three cops already heading for his place to arrest him-" Wufei never got to finish though as Heero swiftly flipped his phone shut and was out of his house in only five seconds flat. His chocolate bangs were irritating him as they kept getting in his eyes, but it didn't slow him down one bit as he called Duo to warn the new suspect.

No one picked up, and Heero figured there'd be no use to leave a voice mail if the guy wouldn't even think of returning the call. Not to mention this wasn't something Duo could just get back to him on, this was urgent and Heero now had no choice but to barge in uninvited. As he sprinted around the corner to Duo's street, he remembered that Duo's father wasn't exactly going to be ecstatic to see him on the front porch which made Heero head for the backyard. Hopefully nothing had changed from what Heero remembered it to be two years ago, since there was always a way to sneak onto the second floor by using the lattice to get onto the small roof above the back porch.

As the teen had hoped, nothing had changed in the least bit except for the garden that Duo's mother, Katherine, had always tended to was now only a rectangle of dirt. Heero began climbing without delay up the lattice, and pulled himself onto the roof so he could then proceed to break into the Maxwell house through their open window. He could hear Duo's father downstairs talking to someone on the phone, so he crept across the small upstairs study and made it all the way to Duo's door without any trouble.

It wasn't until he began to turn the doorknob, that the door was suddenly jerked open to show an enraged Duo. The braided teen's expression quickly changed though as he saw it was Heero and not his father at the door, but Heero didn't allow any words to be exchanged between them yet as he shoved Duo into his own room.

"Listen Duo, something has happened and they're coming to arrest you." Heero informed Duo with that simple sentence, and grabbed Duo's wrist to pull him back out into the hall so they could escape. But Duo wrenched his wrist out of Heero's iron grip shaking his head.

"The cops are coming to get me now? I don't care... they can arrest me if they like and interrogate me all they want, but I didn't do it and nobody can blame me for it." Duo heard car doors slam outside, and wondered how the hell Heero had managed to beat the men to his house. He didn't dwell on it though as he knew there would probably be someone coming into his room, and he couldn't let anyone know Heero was there. "I'll be fine, but _you_ on the other hand... Just hide under the bed, and don't make a sound or they'll find you."

It didn't take long after that for his father and who Duo assumed was cops knocked on his door. As he expected, they were there waiting for him and it didn't take them long to make their way into the teen's room. Duo's father was clearly agitated by something they had said or done, but Duo said nothing as they began inspecting his room.

"I hate to tell you this Mr. Maxwell," one of the men said as he scanned all the items on Duo's dresser. "But we think we may have finally found the one who killed your wife."

"How is that bad news?" Duo's father asked as a sudden anxiety overtook his usually stoic features.

"The fact is, is that we have found more evidence against your _son_ that is once again pointing to him as the murderer." The officer abruptly turned to face the teen and his parent seeming not to find anything incriminating in Duo's possession. "But, the other and much better news for you is that we have also found another suspect... though your son is still the main suspect in this murder."

Heero watched as Duo was handcuffed in his own room, while his father continued to loudly protest against it all. Yet the teen with chocolate hair could not go to his friend's aid as it would not only be considered helping to resist arrest, but also very suspicious on Duo's part. As he waited until he heard the front door bang shut, and then emerged from his hiding spot to start investigating the supposed _murderer's_ room himself. He knew it was kind of rude to go through someone's belongings without them being there, but it was probably going to be the only chance he'd ever get to try and discover the missing element in this case.

There wasn't anything much different than any other adolescent boy would own, but Heero still had yet to look on the laptop that was now rebooting as one of the officers had turned it on. Most likely the man had intended to do the same as Heero, but forgot and ended up leaving without probing through the contents of the computer.

The password screen popped up, but Heero only needed three tries to figure out the right password. Duo had set it as his favorite brand of cigarettes which Heero had happened to stumble upon a couple of packs hidden between the wall and the bed. As he searched through every file on the whole computer, he came to one in particular that caught his eye. The folder didn't have an intriguing name of any sort, and that was the whole reason it had caught his eye.

It was one of those things that most people would've left unobserved, because of the fact the _New Folder_ was not named as the rest of the folders were. The only thing that caught Heero off guard was the fact that this folder had its own password for someone to get into it. Heero figured it couldn't be that hard to crack Duo's logic, but as he continued to go through every possible keyword he was left clueless and defeated.

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**Hey guys, another update I hope isn't too late! I love this series as one of my best honestly, so remember any feedback would be helpful! If this story is going in a direction that's just way too crazy, I'd love to hear any opinions. **

**Love ya'll readers!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	6. Chapter 6

Heero sat there, as there was no specific train of thought that came to him as he continued pondering that password. He'd given up earlier, but he decided to try again, after all there'd never been a computer or file he couldn't hack before. So there was no way Duo Maxwell would ruin that for him. There was something he hadn't even thought of before, as he typed in the word it entered in as the correct code, and Heero rolled his eyes.

"Why the hell would you put _my_ name as the password? I guess making it so obvious is what made it impossible for me to figure it out quickly..." Heero went ahead and began exploring the contents of the file. What he found was normal at first, just a couple of pictures Heero was sure Duo wouldn't want his father to see.

That was when he began to find something more disturbing, as he began to find many articles that had been saved or scanned onto the computer from the newspaper all concerning his mother's murder, and he hit the 'jackpot' when he found a letter Duo had typed. Though he wasn't sure whether he had just written a letter to himself, or to someone in particular, but it was what he had typed that troubled Heero.

There was a panicked feeling as Heero read the other teen's letter, and continued to read the exclamation, "I didn't do it!" But there was a name that caught his eye half-way through the paper that he didn't recognize, Treize Khushrenada, well the truth was Heero _knew_ the name but couldn't explain any connection between that man and Duo. He had been a very powerful icon, but supposedly he lost all of his success because an employee of his confessed to police that there had been illegal operations going on in his company.

Suddenly the phone began to rang and startled the teenager, his cobalt eyes swiftly moving to the electronic, and he wondered whether or not to answer the phone. He knew it was a bad idea to answer, but Heero's curiosity got the best of him as he snatched the receiver.

"Hello?"

"You're not him." The voice sounded displeased as Heero unexpectedly felt a chill run down his spine.

"Who is this? I can leave a message for Mr. Maxwell or Duo if you need them to return a call." Heero felt stupid for saying something like that, but he figured if it was just a friend of Duo's dad, he would surely leave his name at least. After a long silence on the other end Heero asked, "Are you still there?"

"You should not be in that house... I need _him_ not you... though you may be a good resource to reserve for later..." The voice seemed to have either forgotten Heero was still there or else didn't care to hide his suspicious intentions. "Just remember what you meddling has gotten you into..."

With that last threat the other line went dead. Heero didn't know what to make of the phone call, but he knew that whoever was calling was angry that he had been 'meddling'. "What the fuck is happening around you Duo...?"

---

Duo sat in the room, bored as they tried to do the bad cop-nice cop interrogation on him once again, but the braided teen had learned not to trust police officers not matter what they promise. The 'bad cop' paced around the room and suddenly stopped to try intimidating Duo by slapping the table hard.

"You know that even if you don't confess we have enough evidence to convict you as guilty of this crime?"

"You guys don't have _shit_. All you have is speculation, and the judge won't give a fuck if you can't get at least one bit of tangible evidence." Duo smirked as he watched the man really begin to lose his temper as his bluff was thrown back into his face. "So what are you gonna offer me now?"

The teenager directed the question to the 'nice cop' and watched as the man tried not to lose patience as well. The two of them stood up and began to head for the door, but then one stopped and there was one second where Duo could've sworn the man smirked at him. Yet neither of them said a word as the left the interrogation room, and as Duo sat there he began to get a sudden uneasiness.

Amethyst eyes scanned the room before resting on the two-way mirror, knowing that there were eyes peering at him from behind there gave him the creeps, and a sense of nostalgia as well. Like this sort of thing had happened before, where the unseeing eyes observed him ever ready to strike. The door opened and Duo's father stepped into the dimly lit room, and had the usual look of exhaustion on his face.

"The morons that work here are incredible ignorant, it's almost like talking to a brick wall half the time. Anyway, they're going to release you soon and we can go back home... Apparently the coroner claims that they've uncovered something that opened the cold case once again, but haven't elaborated as to what that is." Duo's father didn't seem capable of looking his son in the eye, which led the teen to believe whatever the police found isn't a good thing. "Anyways, let's go home and try to make the rest of today normal as possible."

The two of them made their way out to the front of the building where two officers were waiting to drive them back home. It was the same two men that had been questioning Duo and trying to force out a confession that didn't exist.

One stepped forward, "We've been ordered to keep surveillance of your home until this passes over."

"Fine do whatever the hell you want." Duo's father and Duo got into the car, both shifting uncomfortably as they felt awkward. The two of them knew things would get even worse in their house as these strangers made it their temporary residence, yet there was nothing either of them could do.

The drive back to the Maxwell house was horrible, there was an eerie silence that settled over the group of men and Duo couldn't believe that any of this was still real. Actually he knew that both he and his father wished that this wasn't their reality, and that it was some crazy dream that just wouldn't end. But that was the sort of thing that wouldn't go away with the blink of an eye, it was a burden that they had to bear.

As they arrived back at the house, Duo noticed his window was closed, which meant Heero was still there. He distinctly remembered it being open, but maybe there was a reason for the other teenager to remain in his house. Though he had better have a good reason for doing so, especially since they were now going to be under 24-hour surveillance, and it was putting Duo in a bad mood.

"I'll be in my room if any of you assholes need me," Duo slammed the car door as he got out and unlocked the front door with his own key. Making his way to his room, he found Heero on his bed apparently taking a nap, which just pissed Duo off even more. "Wake up and get off my fucking bed!"

He said it no louder than a whisper for fear of someone hearing him, but it still woke the chocolate-haired teen up quickly. Prussian blue eyes immediately landed on him as Heero sat up, he was obviously embarrassed for anyone to have seen him so vulnerable but tried not to show it.

"So what's going on now?" Heero asked as he observed Duo closing the door and locking it carefully.

"To be honest, they're going to be watching me 24-7 from now on... so you're going to have to be a bit more discreet if you come over again uninvited." The amethyst-eyed teen sat down on the bed next to Heero, exhausted from the day's events. "I can't believe this is all really happening..."

Heero didn't want to mention anything about Duo openly saying he could come back, because he knew doing so would probably just enrage the fatigued teen. He fell lied down across the bed parallel to the other young man and they just stayed like that for a few minutes. Neither spoke a word as they did not want to disturb one of the few moments where they weren't fighting, yet Fate was not kind as she destroyed that fraction of their lives.

"Hey kid, unlock the door." One of the cops demanded, Heero went back to his hiding spot under the bed as Duo did as commanded. "My name is Sharpe by the way and my partner is Bennit, I just wanted to make sure you were still here and explain this all better to you. First of all, one of us will be accompanying you and your father at all times, that includes school and work or any after school activities. Along with that we would prefer you bringing any desired company to your home instead of going to theirs' as it would be awkward. That's really it, so just behave and I'm sure everything will work out."

Duo sighed impatiently and closed the door in the man's face, making sure that was the end of their conversation. He once again flopped on his bed as he heard footsteps going towards the stairs, Heero came out.

"I'm sorry to be such a burden, so I'll be leaving I guess."

"No, don't... I really do need somebody here. And out of anyone I'd pick you since you're the only one I can really trust." The adolescent seemed ashamed of admitting this sort of weakness, and it made Heero remember the kind of desire that had gotten Timothy Maxwell's disapproval in the first place. "But don't get any funny ideas, you mean nothing more to me than a friend would."

Duo hated how he had not only to lie to Heero, but to himself about his emotions when it came to his friend. Yet he wouldn't allow himself to succumb to these uncontrollable feelings of affection, as he convinced himself Heero was nothing more than a companion to talk to and keep him sane.

---

It wasn't a night that was meant to be interrupted, at least not for Trowa and Quatre, but it was anyway. The cell phone began to ring from Quatre's nightstand, which was veiled by the impenetrable darkness of his room. With a few stumbling steps the blonde managed to snatch the device and click the button to answer the call.

"Hello?" His voice was groggy, as it was now nearly two in the morning and Heero decided to suddenly call him.

As Quatre listened to Heero described that day's events from when he left their new school, he heard Trowa shift in the bed and knew that he was now curious as to what was going on. Almost as soon as the call ended, Trowa inquired about what occurred.

"Heero was just telling me about everything that happened, and honestly it's not something I'd like to think about right now. Can't we just discuss this in the morning?" Quatre knew Trowa wasn't about to let him get away with some excuse like that, but oddly the brunette didn't pry.

All that he asked was, "Those morons are alright, aren't they?"

"There's no human being on this earth that could keep either one of them restrained against their will, except for each other." He smiled, even though he knew Trowa could see it, but he still had the feeling the brunette knew. "Can we go back to sleep now? Since we do have school tomorrow..."

"If you really want to sleep you can, but I can think of a few other things we could be doing now that we're awake."

"And what would that be?"

After that there was no more conversation between the two hormone crazy teenagers, as they allowed their bodies to control the conversation.

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**So how was this chapter? I'm hoping I'm keeping a good plot and being consistent with everything (mainly the writing style). Anyways, I would love whatever advice or suggestions any of ya'll have to give if you think something needs to be changed a little bit.**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	7. Chapter 7

Morning light shone into the window that the blinds were carelessly left open last night, and it immediately woke the two adolescents up with a start. It seemed both of them needed a brief second just to remember all that had happened, and then they both settled back down. Heero was the first to get up and reached for his bag that he had packed clothes into for his stay with Duo, which surprisingly his parents allowed him that sort of independence after he had asked.

"I'm going to go see where those cops are before we decide on how to leave." Duo didn't understand why he was feeling so much more alive these last couple of days than he has for the last two years. Maybe it was that adrenaline rush he would get knowing he's deceiving the law, or maybe it was just that he was finally getting to see his old friends again, but he didn't even want to consider Heero being with him an option. "I'll snag some money so we can go buy some breakfast on the way to school, or if you don't want to go I know a couple of places we could go hang out."

Heero's glare answered Duo immediately, and the feeling of nostalgia came over the teenager as he remembered how their friendship used to be. Lately it seemed that their roles had been reversed in the sense that Heero always used to be the cold one while Duo the one who would bend over backwards to gain his trust, and it felt as if things were heading back towards that direction. The only part that might be different, is that Duo wouldn't be always be so willing to do anything to get Heero just to talk with him.

Gregory Sharpe was sitting in the dining room filling out some paperwork while his partner Bennit was no where to be seen. Duo remembered what he had learned last night, and realized Bennit was probably on his way to his father's job. The older man eyed the teenager as he crossed the dining room and headed into the kitchen, Duo grabbed two cokes from the fridge and began to return to his room when Sharpe stopped him.

"It's too early in the morning to be drinking sodas, don't you know that it's unhealthy for you Duo?" The man looked directly into Duo's eyes, looking for some sign of guilt or any other suspicious emotion. "It's especially unhealthy to be drinking _two_ sodas in the morning..."

Duo whipped his head around angrily, and only gave a curt reply. "Fuck you."

The cop didn't say anything after that so Duo hastily made his way up the stairs and away from the man. Heero was already dressed when he opened the door he had even packed all his stuff for school already, but he didn't know what to say when Duo tossed him the soda.

"God that guy gives me the creeps, he just has that way of looking at me that gives me the feeling he must be a pervert or something." The teen shuddered and then opened his soda to drink almost the whole thing with one gulp. "I think you're gonna have to end up leaving now and we'll meet on the way to school. Just don't take the alleys cause I wanna make sure that the man doesn't know my own secret escape route."

Heero said nothing as he opened the door into the hall, after thoroughly making sure that Sharpe wasn't going to pop out of any corner he went toward the study. Using the lattice to drop to the ground and then snuck around the house to the front door, he then proceeded to ring the doorbell and knew Duo wasn't going to be very happy about this spontaneous decision.

Sharpe answered the door and raised an eyebrow at Heero, "And you would be?"

"Heero, I'm a friend of Duo's and I always have to walk him to school to make sure he makes it there." Heero could see why Duo would automatically dislike Sharpe, he did have the look of a pervert about him and being alone with this kind of guy would be anyone's nightmare. If he ever did happen to have the urge to do anything, he would be able to overpower just about anyone.

Duo saw Heero from the middle of the staircase, and then ran upstairs to get ready which only took about two minutes. When he returned to the staircase he could hear Sharpe was giving Heero a really hard time about something, so he decided to use his acting skills to stop the argument.

"Is it already that time Heero? I could've sworn I had another twenty minutes before you'd come by..." He pushed past Sharpe and started to walk down the sidewalk.

Sharpe smirked as he went inside for his paperwork and then came back out with his car keys. "You two won't have to walk today, cause I'll just drive you there myself."

Heero's impassive expression didn't waver in the slightest upon hearing this, and Duo tried hard not to let his temper explode. Neither of the teenagers objected as the were ushered into the back seat of Sharpe's car which truthfully the seat wasn't meant to fit more than one person, but Duo refused to sit up in the passenger seat.

"Are you hungry? I didn't see Duo get any breakfast this morning, and I'm guessing you probably wouldn't have had time either." The older man looked at the teenagers with his mirror as he pulled into a fast food restaurant drive-thru. He ordered them a fattening breakfast making Duo question whether or not Sharpe was just giving him a hard time earlier. "Will you please direct me to your school then Duo?"

----

Wufei watched as Duo and Heero emerged from an unfamiliar car, the two were followed by an older man in his late 30's or early 40's in which the years had been unkind to him. The adolescents separated and the man followed Duo, while Heero made a beeline straight for Wufei. "You were right about Duo being in trouble, again, but this time they're really serious."

Wufei led Heero on a walk towards the main building of the school, "So what have the police found that makes them so sure he would kill Katherine?"

"Either they don't actually have any, or they're really secretive now... either way I wasn't able to find out what evidence they have. I actually don't think they have anything, or else they aren't sure whether the evidence is reliable and they sent men to figure it out by look through Duo's house, his father's workplace, and the school." Heero was still watching Duo in the distance as the young man made it as difficult as possible for Sharpe to follow him.

"Your feelings never did die away did they? Honestly I don't see how you could love such an idiot..." Wufei earned himself a death glare as Heero finally looked him in the face for the first time. Wufei didn't relent just because of that though, "I'm sure he feels the same way, and you'd see that if you just stopped holding onto your pride and spoke to him."

"It isn't just a matter of my pride Wufei, I'm not going to force such emotions on Duo when it's plain to see they would only burden him." Heero pushed his way through the crowd of dawdling teenagers who would find any reason to stay away from class.

"I knew that love was blind, but I didn't know it made you stupid." The Chinese teen sighed as he knew there were other matters that needed his attention, and yet he knew none of them would be finished by the end of that day so he chose to just follow his more emotionally challenged friend into a sea of teenagers.

----

Duo had managed to lose Sharpe in one of the school's many hallways, and made his way toward the roof. There would be the only place he'd be able to contemplate everything, and perhaps figure out exactly what the police had found and why they refused to tell anyone. He wondered about his dream suddenly and how it happened right before he got arrested, and how strange a _coincidence_ it was.

As he quietly pushed the door open to the roof, he could see ominous storm clouds making their way towards his city. The teenager considered it a good thing too, because he loved the rain. He loved the feeling of being sober, not in the sense he was drunk all the time, but in the sense that the rain always brought him down to earth and helped him calm down in a time of panic such as now.

Yet he suddenly felt weak as if he hadn't slept in weeks and was reaching the point he could no longer stay awake. That was when he heard the footsteps of someone coming up behind him, but it seemed his reaction time was slower than normal as the person had already shoved him of the edge of the roof before he really realized. He grabbed the railing, but slipped and began a very long drop down to the ground below. That's when he heard the voice again, the man who had called him and haunted him... he had come to kill Duo, but what for?

The teenager had been born with a strong sense of survival and already his adrenaline was kicking into high gear as he tried desperately to reach for something to slow his descent. Suddenly his left arm smashed into a large branch from one of the taller trees on school grounds, and Duo managed to grab onto another tree branch directly below the one he had most like broken his arm on.

His amethyst eyes dared to look down and he saw he only had about ten feet left to drop, but he would take any risks on breaking anything else and managed somehow to climb down very slowly and painfully. Looking back up at the roof, he had fallen from a three story building and Duo cursed going to one of the taller schools in his district. The man was no longer there, not that Duo really expected any different, but he had always pictured that person to probably stick around and double-check his work.

"Fuck!" Duo cringed with the intensity of the pain as his adrenaline began to wear off, leaving nothing but raw nerves to scream at him now. "God damn, I need to get some fucking pain killers!"

Duo didn't really care whether or not Sharpe found him or not now, but Duo knew that he would be questioned about the injured arm, so he had no choice but to try and get through the day as normally as possible. As soon as he got home though, he was going to be doing everything he could to find out who the hell that guy is.

----

Heero had made a quick call to his parents to reassure them that he would be at Duo's house again that night, unsurprisingly they didn't mind since he always did well at school. As he began to walk towards the alleys though, Duo called out to stop him.

"Hey Heero, wanna come help me do some homework?" Duo tried to grin like it was an every day sort of thing, but Heero could tell there was something else Duo needed to tell him. Sharpe came walking up behind the two teenagers, and Duo got a slightly desperate look on his face. "Please? I really just don't understand any of the shit they talk about in these classes."

"Fine, but this time you have to swear you won't be distracted by anything on TV." Heero walked alongside Duo and the two of them went to Sharpe's car, and got in hurriedly. Before Sharpe was all the way in the car Heero whispered, "Are you going to tell me what the hell's really going on?"

Duo silently nodded, and winced as he was forced to use his left hand to buckle his seatbelt. Unfortunately Sharpe's car had the annoying alarm if anybody in the car wasn't wearing their seatbelt, but they didn't expect much less from a cop.

Heero kept his mouth shut until they got back to Duo's house, but as soon as the two of them got into the teenager's room he started asking questions.

"What the fuck did you do to your arm?" Heero could now see it in plain view, and it was extremely swollen and their were huge contusions where the bones most likely had broken.

"I was..." Duo had trouble talking as Heero was feeling along his arm to find exactly where the break was. "... pushed off the... roof."

----

**Been a while since I've updated, right? Well I've already began writing chapter 8 so I'll make sure to finish and post up soon. I hope ya'll are enjoying it. **

**Please R & R.**

**Shari Maxwell**


	8. Chapter 8

Duo was lying on his stomach on the bed in a lot of pain, as Heero examined his arm thoroughly. It was amazing that his best friend's father just happened to be a doctor, and that Heero was actually weird enough to have read all of his father's medical books and other things about human anatomy. It was an odd coincidence, but still a lucky one as Duo wasn't going to be able to get it properly looked at without arising suspicion from Sharpe.

"Are you going to fix the fucking thing or not?!" Duo screamed into the pillow as he felt Heero's rough calloused fingers feel all along his arm sending more waves of pain all through Duo's body. He turned his head sideways to look at the wall opposite Heero because he knew he must look pathetic in that condition, and he didn't feel like having any sympathy at the moment. The teenager calmed himself down as much as possible before asking, "So can you do anything?"

"It's going to hurt a lot more than you can probably handle, and you'll end up passing out most likely. But it seems that I can probably set the bone back into its proper condition... You're just lucky as hell this didn't end up being a compound fracture from the height you fell from." Heero grabbed a bottle of morphine pills, he grabbed three of the tablets and tapped Duo on the shoulder to get his attention. "Look over here so you can take some of these, they might ease the pain a bit."

Duo refused to move his head to look over at the other teenager, "Forget the pills, I've been in pain this long I can handle a bit more."

"It isn't a bit-"

"Just fucking do it!" Duo yelled at the wall, and then suddenly a loud crack seemed to echo throughout the room. Then everything just went black.

----

Heero sighed as he watched Duo's body go completely limp, he took this chance to carefully flip his friend's body over so he was lying on his back. He then went to work on bandaging his arm up so he wouldn't be in as much pain when he woke up, but it would be a few weeks before Duo would fully recover from this broken arm.

There was a moment of hesitation though when Heero had finished his work on the arm, as he noticed the peacefulness Duo suddenly had on his face. It was almost as if he couldn't feel a thing in his sleep even as Heero continued to fix the arm. Even as he tried hard to concentrate on making everything as painless as possible for his friend, the teenager continued to find his eyes drawn to Duo's face in its tranquil state.

Then, almost as if it was an involuntary movement Heero moved as if to kiss Duo on the lips, but wavered at the last second on whether he should do it or not. It wasn't like him to be uncertain about anything, but right then he couldn't tell whether he was overstepping a boundary or not. Duo wouldn't give him a chance to decide as he woke with a start, the teenager was attempting to sit up but with Heero so close all the ended up doing was bumping heads.

Heero fell back off the bed and onto the floor, while Duo fell back onto his pillows, both of them were rubbing their heads as the sat up. Duo cringed hastily when he moved his left arm, he looked at the bandages and then at Heero realizing that it was his handiwork.

"Thanks for fixing me up and all, but I want to know why you were on top of me?" Duo's voice went from sincere to suspicious in a matter of seconds, yet Heero knew he had every right to be wondering what exactly had been going on after he had passed out.

"You passed out right after I set the bone, and I had to bandage your arm to make sure everything stays in its rightful place. Though you seemed to be experiencing other pains while asleep so I was trying to figure out where they were."

"So you had to be practically straddling me to do that?"

"Yes, I could only tell by what your face would show me whenever I touched the tender areas." Heero tried to play his excuse off as being the truth, though he had a feeling Duo was able to see straight through it all.

Duo swung his legs over the side of the bed, and extended his hand to Heero. The teen took it but was surprised when Duo used that chance to pull Heero onto the bed, and right back onto him. "Admit it... you weren't doing anything_ medical, _were you? What is it you were looking for?"

Heero couldn't figure out why Duo's behavior had changed so drastically, the only thing that could have triggered this sort of schizophrenia episode was when he had set the bone. But this sort of thing had never happened before when he watched other people's bones be set in place...

There was no time to think as Duo kissed Heero fiercely, and used his right arm to pull Heero down on the bed. His amethyst eyes had a glint of lust in them, something Duo had never had before. It was like looking at a whole different person just from the way his eyes had changed.

"Duo you're not yourself, you should just rest and I'll try to figure out why you're suddenly acting this way." Heero was pinned though as Duo used his whole body to hold the other teen down. "Duo... get off."

"Is that a warning?" Duo grinned as he trailed his hand along Heero's cheek and continued along his neck. He stopped at Heero's shirt as he seemed to contemplate what to do with it.

Heero hated it as he felt his face become flushed, and it was beginning to piss him off how Duo had that smirk as if he was in complete control. He noticed an opening for escape as Duo began to trail his hand down lower, the teen became distracted giving Heero an opportunity to shove Duo off.

"Okay Duo, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What do you mean what's wrong with me? What the hell is wrong with you? Pushing a fucking injured person into a goddamn wall!" Duo cradled his arm with care as he stood up. "I thought you were supposed to be nice to people who are hurt."

Heero moved towards Duo ever wary of what he might do, but it seemed that he was truly back to normal. The teenager felt Duo's forehead for fever, but found nothing out of the ordinary. "So you don't remember any of what happened?"

"I remember waking up with you over me, and that's really it... I thought I said we were just _friends_, you were getting weird ideas weren't you?" Duo interrogated Heero seriously, but Heero was having a hard time keeping a straight face. "Are you laughing at me?!"

"This is the first time you've actually joked about anything since we met again... It just reminded me of the way you were in middle school, and how I really did miss the old you." It was now Heero's turn to act odd as Duo flopped back on the bed.

"Wow, we're really a pair, huh? We're just a couple of fucking losers..." Duo laughed loudly while Heero observed him. He was nothing like just a few minutes before, but Heero decided not to think about it too much at the time. It was the first time in so long that he'd been able to hear Duo laugh like that, and he wanted to enjoy every minute of it.

----

Sharpe heard Duo from down the hall and wondered what it was that made that guy laugh. It was hard to explain, but Sharpe couldn't imagine his teenage murderer laughing, especially because of the way he had been acting this whole time.

The lights and electricity began to flicker throughout the house, "I guess the storm's here now."

----

Trowa was soaked to the bone from the thunderstorm raging around him, but he didn't really mind it all that much. The only thing occupying his thoughts was how pissed off his sister would be once he got home since he was late _again_. He couldn't help it though, today he had actually gone to the library to look something up that was bothering him about Duo's situation.

He had found it odd that the police had yet to disclose whatever information they think has made him the murderer. It was always one of their things to usually at least taunt the suspect once during interrogation with whatever they had, but from what he understood no one had even hinted at their evidence.

The brunette suddenly stopped as he saw someone ahead of him just standing and waiting, he wondered whether they were waiting for him and continued walking. When he was able to see more than just a silhouette of the person, he saw a man in his early twenties with long blonde hair and piercing azure eyes.

Trowa said nothing as he walked around him, but as he passed he suddenly could feel the freezing rain as it continued to pound on him. He couldn't seem to think of anything other than Duo, and he found it odd that his friend had completely taken over his mind. As he walked a few feet more Trowa could now hear the man's footsteps following his own, and he just had a feeling this man wasn't someone Trowa wanted to be alone with.

His house was only a couple of blocks away, so he decided to take a shortcut through a few of the neighbors' yards and hopefully that man wouldn't be so eager to jump fences. Trowa hoisted himself up onto the fence but before dropping down to the other side the man finally spoke to him.

"Where is Heero Yuy?"

Trowa stopped as he heard Heero's name, but showed no recognition on his face. "I don't know anyone by that name."

The man smiled and took a few steps closer to Trowa who was preparing to jump off the fence and questioned the teenager one last time. "Then where is Duo Maxwell?"

"I don't know anyone by that name either, so stop harassing me." Trowa jumped down onto the other side where there was now a six foot fence between him and the blonde man.

He proceeded through the person's backyard and over the fence to another person's yard, for some reason he thought it would probably be better if he didn't use the front door this time. Catherine would most likely be pissed even more, but Trowa didn't really care all that much at the moment.

Once he had reached his own backyard, the brunette slid open the back door to be knocked over by Catherine's dog. "Please call him off."

Trowa was trying to block the dog from completely drooling all over his face, but the rottweiler was relentless in his friendly attack.

"It's what you deserve for coming home so late, and going through the _back_ door. Most normal people use the front door, but as usual you never try to be like the rest of these ordinary people on this block do you?" Catherine had gone into one of her ranting sessions that Trowa knew wouldn't be over for a while, but she just gave up the talk for today and called the dog off. "So why did you go through the back door?"

"No reason really, I just felt like it." Trowa didn't want to worry Catherine about more than she needed to since she already had to deal with college and taking care of her younger brother. "I'll be in my room if you need me."

"Fine! We'll be having dinner at seven in case you finally decide to be on time for anything!" Catherine called as Trowa went down the hall to his room.

As soon as the door was shut, Trowa flipped open his cell phone and dialed Heero's number as he no longer knew Duo's. He listened to each ring intently hoping Heero would pick it up. Eventually after waiting eight times, Heero's voice answered with expectantly.

"It's Trowa, I met an interesting man today who wanted to know about you and Duo. I figured you would want to hear about this guy."

----

**Well this was an interesting chapter for me to write, and I hope it was a good one for you guys. I actually don't know what to say right this minute, but I hope you guys enjoy. And as always...**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	9. Chapter 9

Bennit had been out for nearly an hour on his break from watching the Maxwell family and home. With the pouring rain outside, Sharpe was beginning to wonder about the man's whereabouts and why he was taking so long to return. Randall Bennit took his job very seriously as he wished to get a promotion within the next year, and it was unlike him to be so late and not even call.

Sharpe had been attempting to get ahold of Bennit for quite a while now, but the man refused to answer his cell phone for some reason. Again, which wasn't like him at all, but Sharpe just hoped that Bennit was just getting crappy reception with the storm raging all around them. Though he knew in his mind that wasn't the reason at all, it was all he could do was hope it was because there was no way he would be able to go out and search for Randall himself.

"Hey asshole, where's your buddy?" Duo had made his way downstairs without even alerting Sharpe to his presence. "Don't tell me he went out in that fucking storm, that would be a true suicide mission. But then again, you guys are supposed to go do stupid- I mean _heroic _things like that, right?"

The teenager slumped down in a chair in the living room across from the officer, which the worry on his face had grown obvious even to the uncaring suspect. "Shouldn't you be finishing your homework? Or doing something you know your father disapproves of and enjoying disobeying him thoroughly?"

"Nah, I'd rather fuck around with you first." Duo smirked at the police officer and waited eagerly for the man's reaction, but when there was a lack of one the teenager began to suspect that something really was amiss. "Come on, no response? No witty comeback or something to further piss me off?"

The lights flickered once again, but this time couldn't recover and all electricity shut off in the house. Sharpe watched Duo from being the calm, collected interrogator to startled as he seemed surprised by what had occurred. But then there was still something about the look that had flashed over Duo's features that resembled fear, and Sharpe then knew exactly what it was.

"Scared of the dark, eh? Or is it just that it reminds you of that night when you murdered your mother?"

"Fuck you! How many times do I have to tell you I didn't fucking kill her?!" Duo had gotten out of the chair and began heading towards the stairs, but stopped when he saw Heero. "What's wrong now?"

"I don't know, I just lost reception without any warning. I can't figure why because my phone was working just fine a few minutes ago." Heero came all the way down the stairs and stood beside Duo, he glanced at Sharpe and then his gaze remained there.

Sharpe chuckled as he stood up and made his way toward the dining room, "Shouldn't you be going home Mr. Yuy?"

"In this weather? How the hell do you expect him to get home?" Duo followed the older man, and Heero followed Duo as well. "Unlike you, I'm not going to just shove my friend out the door and wait for him to get lost in that fucking storm."

Sharpe continued walking but he could feel his blood pressure steadily rising the whole time, he couldn't believe Duo's father could put up with him all the time. Then again, he probably didn't always act like this when the two of them were by themselves. The older man rummaged through the nearly empty refrigerator and then shut the door wondering why he had even bothered, after all apparently no one in this house actually went to a grocery store.

"Listen kid, Randall can take care of himself. He's a grown man after all, and children like you should watch your language." Sharpe ended up finding an unopened can of tuna and peeled back the metal top carefully, and then went in search of the silverware. He still had yet to familiarize himself with this big kitchen, but Duo was nice enough to find one for him.

"I'm not a child, and for your info not _all_ grown men can take care of themselves. Com on Heero, we've got some more homework to finish up." Duo went upstairs first and went in search of a flashlight while Heero remained downstairs.

Sharpe glanced over his shoulder to see the teenager observing him, then he suddenly turned around and headed up the stairs. Something about the way Heero was watching him made Sharpe uncomfortable, but he just chalked it up to his inexperience with teenagers to be the reason.

----

Catherine had been busying herself with her cooking dinner when the electricity went out. She hadn't been expecting it, not that anyone could predict something like that, but she knew now her dinner she had originally planned on making was ruined. She waited for a while hoping that the electricity would come back soon, but after another half hour of nothing she knew there was no hope.

She dumped her unfinished dinner into Samson's food dish and the dog happily ate it. She began looking for something that didn't really require any preparation. Catherine could only find a bunch of junk food, so she decided just to go ahead and eat anything since there was no real dinner anymore.

Just as she was about to sit down, there was someone knocking at the front door. Samson rushed at the door barking madly, and then he abruptly stopped and began growling. "What's wrong with you Samson? It's probably just the neighbors asking if we have any electricity over here, like they always do."

She looked out the eyehole in the front door and found a tall blonde man at their door, but she didn't say anything since she had no idea who he was. Just seeing him gave her chills, which was quite unusual for Catherine. Trowa came out of the hall to see his sister's hand on the doorknob, yet the look on her face clearly showed she didn't want to open the door.

"Sis, are you okay?" Trowa put his hand over Catherine's hand that was on the doorknob, and it seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was in. "Let me look before you answer the door next time."

Catherine just nodded and she walked back to the kitchen while Trowa stayed at the door in disbelief that the man had found his house. Even after all the trouble he had gone through hopping fences in the pouring rain, and yet here the man was. The teenager opened the door and the blonde man kept a perfectly indifferent expression.

"What the hell do you want?"

"I just wanted to give you a friendly little warning, but it depends on whether or not you answer my questions correctly." Piercing blue eyes looked directly into Trowa's stunning emerald eyes. "Where is Duo Maxwell?"

"Fuck off, I don't know him."

"Then what about Heero Yuy?"

"I already told you, I don't know either of those guys." Trowa was almost ready to slam the door in the guy's face, but what he said next made him hesitate.

"Then should I ask Quatre? I'm almost positive you know _him_, so please tell me where I can find him." The blonde man had kept the same emotionless expression the whole time, but Trowa had been careful to guard his emotions as well. "You'll really regret not answering my questions when you don't hear my warning."

"I already told you to leave me alone, so don't bother asking anymore. I won't answer questions I can't answer, and since I don't know any of these people I don't know why you insist on asking their whereabouts." Trowa shut the door and walked back towards the kitchen to see if his sister was alright.

He never did get the chance to ask her as all of a sudden, something literally crashed into their _house_. Trowa didn't have time to react as he saw whatever had crashed had completely destroyed the kitchen, where Catherine was.

"Catherine!" When he could clearly see the object that had rammed into the side of their house, he couldn't believe it was a car. Trowa couldn't believe any of this was happening as he tried to look over all the debris to see any sign of his sister, and when he did he immediately rushed over to her. "Catherine! Are you alright!?"

She was unconscious and most likely was seriously injured, and it made Trowa feel even more desperate to get her out of there. He began digging away at the rubble and after a while he managed to be able to pull her out. Somehow the dog Samson had been barely hurt and began whining when he saw his master in that condition.

Most of her body was covered in small cuts, but the worst bleeding came from a gash in her head and one on her thin arm. She was so fragile in this state, and Trowa began trying to call for an ambulance when he heard some frantic knocking at the door. He ran over to the door and flung it open to find a few of the neighbors already gathering around the house.

A small woman named Rosemary was Trowa's immediate neighbor and had always taken care of them, so he grabbed her hand and pulled her to where Catherine was lying. "You've got to help her Rose, she's really hurt."

"You look alright though, how is Catherine hurt?"

"She was in the kitchen and that's where the car crashed, but I was out here." Trowa stopped by Catherine and watched as Rosemary began to carefully apply pressure with her dress to Catherine's head wound. "Can you drive her to the hospital? I should check on whoever the hell was driving that damn car."

"I'll take care of her, please help me carry her to my car outside."

Trowa obliged to the woman's request, and carried his injured sister out into the pouring rain. Once the two of them had got her in the car, Rosemary immediately began honking at the people behind her car that were in her way. In no time, they were off to the hospital and Trowa went back inside his own house to go see the driver. It amazed him that none of the other bystanders had bothered coming to his aide or the driver's, instead they all stood around looking fearful and panicked.

The car was actually a police officer's, and Trowa was having a hard time reaching the man inside. So he did something reckless, and grabbed a random blunt object and broke the windshield open so Trowa could at least try pulling the man out of the car. But when he first touched the man, Trowa could already tell he was dead and had been for a little while.

Even knowing that, Trowa continued to try and get the man out until he eventually succeeded. He double checked the man's pulse to make sure he wasn't mistaken, but it was undeniable. This man had been dead for at least half an hour now, but he couldn't be completely sure.

Samson went over to Trowa and whined for attention as he was obviously terrified. Trowa carried the man away from the wreckage and laid him on the couch. He suddenly heard someone enter the house and saw the blonde man again.

"Didn't I told you didn't I? Aren't you regretting not answering my questions in the first place?" The man smirked now at the teenager, "So will you answer me now?"

----

**Was this exciting enough for everyone? Hah, just kidding. Anyways, I guess this is an Independence Day present to all the readers out there who are craving for more. Anyways, I would love to know what everyone thinks of all of this so far, and I don't care whether you love it or hate it. I would just love to know what you feel!**

**And I guess I finally got my act together since I have now finished planning out the rest of this series. So now I know exactly what I want to happen and how many more chapters before I end it, but I'll leave that a surprise for you guys. (wink)**

**Hope ya'll enjoyed!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	10. Chapter 10

Duo and Heero still sat on Duo's bed as the rain continued to beat against the outside of the house, and the electricity still refused to return any time soon. The two teenagers felt a little awkward trying to do homework by candlelight, but they didn't have any other choice. They stayed like that for a while until Duo finally let out an exasperated sigh and threw his pen across the room where it landed soundlessly.

"I'm sick of doing homework... Aren't there more important things to do than just sit here and do _schoolwork_ Heero? After all, with all this rain the school will probably be closed tomorrow anyway." Duo watched as Heero continued ignoring him, but Duo honestly didn't care and went ahead with his rambling. "You know I usually like the rain, but right now it just keeps making things worse and worse. First the power goes out, and then we can't call Trowa back because we can't get any reception. Then that moron downstairs still creeps me out, _especially_ in the dark."

Heero finally got irritated to the point he actually looked up from what he was doing, "Duo, shut up."

Instead of heeding Heero's demand Duo just continued babbling about random nonsense, such as how he hates school and even to the point he began complaining about how mosquitoes always targeted him in the summer. Heero was getting to a point that he didn't want to hear all the things Duo spouted out of his mouth, and so he took care of his problem by throwing a pillow at the other teen's face.

This resulted in Duo getting knocked off the edge of the bed and onto the floor, Heero smiled as he peered over the edge of the bed to see if his friend was still alive. Duo was quick to counterattack as he threw the pillow at Heero, but wasn't able to knock him off which made him spring off the floor to attack Heero himself.

"I'm going to make you pay for that!" Duo was laughing as he tackled Heero and they both rolled off the edge of the bed. The two of them had began their own wrestling match, and had somehow didn't knock over any of the candles during their match.

After a few minutes of their wrestling, Heero ended up pinning Duo down. Duo pouted and then admitted his defeat to Heero, but Heero wasn't satisfied with just that and prodded him for a better reward. "What's my _real_ reward?"

Duo squirmed beneath him, "Fine, you want a better reward? Come down here and I'll whisper it to you."

Heero was unsure about doing it, but he leaned down a bit to hear what Duo was going to give him for a prize when Duo nipped his ear. When Heero gave him a look of surprise, Duo just stuck his tongue out childishly and laughed at the expression frozen on Heero's face. "You should never trust a sore loser to give you a prize for beating them!"

"Well what if I take my own prize then?" Heero watched his cocky friend's expression go from triumphant to confusion. "Maybe I should just take your laptop or something..."

"No! Don't take that I'll give you something else! Anything-!" Duo never got to finish his sentence as Heero took that as the right moment to claim his reward. He captured the other teenager's lips in a kiss that made the room go eerily silent compared to just moments ago when they were causing such a commotion with their fighting.

Duo hated himself for it, but he could feel his body reacting to Heero's kiss and he even felt himself returning the kiss. His mind kept reminding him they were nothing more than friends, while his body kept reminding him of the feelings he had been harboring for almost two years now. This would probably be one of the few times he would be able to expose his true feelings to Heero, and he didn't want to risk losing the chance.

That first kiss seemed to last forever before Heero finally tried to break away, Duo stopped him and pulled him into another heated kiss.

After a few minutes of them each continuing the battle of their mouths, Duo had somehow managed to back himself up against a wall. It didn't bother Duo in the least bit, in fact it gave him the chance to allow his hands to wander up under Heero's shirt feeling the lean muscles beneath. Heero didn't protest to this at all, but he was uncertain about how Duo would react to his own hands going to the unexplored areas of the teen's body.

Just as things were beginning to move on to the next stage, the electricity suddenly flickered on startling the two. Duo's hands tried to retreat from under Heero's shirt, but they got stuck and ended up pulling Heero all the way on top of him. The two sat in stunned silence as Heero realized _exactly_ where he had landed, right between Duo's legs.

----

Quatre hadn't had a quiet day at all, not with all of his family preparing for a meeting with their father's boss. When the electricity had gone out all over the city, it had just made everything _much_ worse for him since he had to calm his sisters down enough to figure out what they would do. More than likely the man would call off the meeting, but he wasn't an ordinary man either so Quatre didn't plan on him canceling.

They had prepared a nice dinner for the man and everything, and thankfully the power came back in the city even though the rain was still pouring outside. But what the blonde hadn't been prepared for was a phone call from his best friend and lover, Trowa. He hardly ever called Quatre unless it was for an absolute emergency, so the blonde always answered Trowa's call no matter what was going on.

"Trowa? Is everything all right?"

Quatre listened to Trowa's story and when Trowa asked him to come down to the hospital with him, Quatre couldn't possibly say no. He knew how important Catherine was to him, and for something so terrible to happen to her was an unspeakable thing. The blonde knew his father had been wanting him to meet his boss for a long time, but unfortunately he told his father an emergency had come up.

"Go ahead Quatre, if your friend needs your support then I can wait to introduce you two later."

His father had always been empathetic to his son, and now wasn't different than any other time. "Thanks Father, I promise to make this up to you."

The drive to the hospital was longer because of the downpour, but Quatre's driver was able to get him there in fifteen minutes flat. The blonde hastily went to the reception window and asked for the room where Catherine Bloom was, the nurse seemed unsurprised by his rush and told him the name as if it wasn't the room his friend could possibly be dying in.

"It's on the third floor, room 1307."

Quatre thanked her anyway, because of his polite nature, before hurrying on to the elevator and rapidly beating the button to the third floor. When he reached the third floor, he found the room with no trouble at all since it was only down the hall from the elevators. When he opened the door, Trowa was sitting beside his sister back to the door.

"Is she going to be alright?" The blonde had authentic fear for the young woman's health, and was relieved when Trowa nodded.

"Yes, but she'll be here recovering for weeks... She suffered a concussion and two broken ribs, and it was all because of me."

Quatre had never heard the brunette speak solemnly before, and it unnerved him to hear it now. He knew any person in his position would be acting the same way, if not more panicked and grave, but it was so unlike Trowa.

"Well, the important thing is she'll be alright. Nobody could've predicted this happening, and you can't blame yourself for it." Quatre softly covered his friend's hand in an attempt to soothe his anxiety, but instead the brunette just moved his hand. "It was a _freak accident_, no one's to blame."

"You're wrong Quatre, _that _man knew it was coming... _that _man was the cause of Catherine getting hurt... And I can't forgive him for it." Trowa spoke with such hatred that Quatre feared for that man's life, whoever he was. "I swear I will make him pay for hurting my sister."

Quatre pulled up a chair and sat beside Trowa, "What man are you talking about?"

"He followed me around yesterday, and right before the accident happened he kept asking for where Heero and Duo are. I claimed I didn't have a clue who they are, and he just told me I'd regret saying that. Then it happened..." Trowa went silent for a minute, as if he was reliving the experience once again in his mind. "Then he came in after Catherine was going to the hospital, and kept pestering me to answer his questions..."

"Did you answer him?"

Trowa hesitated for a second, and then looked at Quatre. Even now, the blonde looked so very delicate, almost like Catherine, and he knew he had no choice but to answer. "I didn't have a choice... he threatened to go after _you_ next."

----

Wufei was meditating when he received the call from Quatre, and learned all of what had been going on. The Chinese teen wasn't quite sure if everything Quatre was telling him was a joke or not, but he knew the blonde wouldn't joke about things as serious as this. When he finally hung up the phone, he knew Quatre was going to call Heero and Duo next, but Wufei didn't want to sit around and do nothing while all of this was occurring.

He went into his room and knew all of the training he had forced himself to do was finally going to pay off. He brought down the sharp sword as he knew that if this man was capable of doing what Trowa claimed, there was going to be no easy way to stop him. Wufei was about to drive himself down to the hospital when he noticed a man outside of his house.

The man was tall, with brunette hair, and stunning sapphire eyes; not at all what Quatre had described the man who had visited Trowa. Nonetheless, Wufei's intuition told him to be wary of this man as there was still something about him that made him uneasy.

"I didn't expect any of you to be trained in any type of swordplay... or are you self-taught?" The brunette looked at Wufei expectantly.

"Even if I'm self-taught, that doesn't mean I'm worse than anyone with formal training." Wufei defended himself, but when he saw the brunette reveal his own sword he knew exactly what the man had been waiting for. "So you're challenging me?"

"I've grown a tad bit restless after years of sitting around all day, so I was hoping I could find a challenge from at least one of you. Not to mention I'll be killing two birds with one stone for my brother, since I was sent here to make sure you stay out of our way."

"Enough talk!" Wufei drew out his blade and readied himself, and the brunette did the same. "If I win this, you'll tell me your names and why you are so persistent about Duo Maxwell."

"What do I get if I win?"

"I'll answer two questions as well, any questions. Do you accept?"

"Agreed."

----

**Okay, I honestly wasn't sure if the part with Wufei was just to random or stereotypical of him, but I needed to put more of him in the fic. Just like I needed to put more of Quatre in... and like I needed to put at least a little of HeeroDuo smexiness. (I hope that satisfied some of you readers just waiting for something to happen between the two of them!)**

**Anyways, I hope this chapter didn't disappoint!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	11. Chapter 11

Sharpe had heard about the wreck on the news as it was now one of the top stories about all of the events that had happened when the electricity had gone out all over the city. The only part he really heard was that it was a police officer's car and the neighborhood it had happened in, and he already began to fear for his partner's life. It was so unlike Randall Bennit to disappear for this long and not call in, and Sharpe had a horrible feeling that his partner must've been in the crash.

Relentlessly the rain continued to beat down on his windshield, he wondered where this much rain could've possibly come from but now wasn't the time to worry about such trivial matters. As he neared the neighborhood he could already see Bennit's car and recognized the license plate make it undeniably the truth. There was an ambulance still there, but it appeared that he was dead and nothing could be done to bring him back.

Still, as soon as he turned off his own vehicle he jumped out and ran up to the paramedics. They were loading him up into the ambulance, most likely taking him straight to the morgue as the medical examiner that had come to investigate the body was just standing to the side making notes.

"How did this happen?" Sharpe rudely startled the man out of what he was doing. "My partner wouldn't be stupid enough to just run into a person's house!"

"How did you get past the police? Are you family?" The medical examiner inquired pushing his glasses a little higher up the bridge of his nose. "Only immediate family are allowed past the line, I hope you understand."

Sharpe pulled out his badge identifying him as a police officer in that city, and the medical examiner quieted. "That man was my partner, so I demand whatever knowledge you know about the crash and his death."

The man sighed as he flipped through some more notes, "As far as I can figure the only way that he could've hit this house at such an angle was if he was _aiming_ for it or if he were already driving across the rest of the yards and such. So it is typically impossible to hit this house from such an angle, but from what we can tell from his body he must've already been dead before he ever hit the house."

Sharpe was silent as he listened, not believing what he was hearing, he almost tried to make himself believe this was not Randall. Not Randall who just got married two weeks ago... not the man who faithfully came to his job and always performed at his best... There was no way such a good man could be dead when he had just barely began to start his life.

"So we're sending him to the coroner's office to test for poisons, a heart attack, or some other way of death now, but I'm not sure how the results will turn out. That young man was kind enough to pull out your partner before the roof collapsed on top of the car, if it wasn't for him the results would've surely been inconclusive. Anyways, I need to go with the body, so if you would excuse me." The man pushed past Sharpe and got into the back of the ambulance.

Right before the ambulance could take off, Sharpe rushed up to it and began to get in himself. "We might not be family, but I think I should be one of the first to know what truly happened to Randall."

Nobody questioned him or tried to force him out, so the paramedics just closed the doors and went around to get inside.

----

Wufei couldn't believe how tough this man was, and couldn't believe how easily he had lost. It was almost like this man wasn't human, his movements had been so graceful and precise that there had been no way Wufei could've beaten him. That was what pissed him off the most, not really the fact that he lost, but that all those years of self-training had amounted to nothing against this man.

"I suppose this means that I will get my two questions answered now? And I want you to be honest about this because lying will only result in your death." The brunette held his sword up to Wufei's throat threateningly. "Now here's my first question what is _your_ name?"

When Wufei hesitated he pressed the blade a little harder, "My name is Wufei Chang."

"Good Wufei, my second question is where is Duo Maxwell?"

The teenager thought about it for a moment, just because he _had_ to answer the question and answer honestly... didn't mean he had to be specific. "Duo is at his house most likely."

The brunette narrowed his eyes, "That's too cryptic Wufei, what's the address?"

"We agreed on two questions, and I've answered honestly." Wufei countered as he stood up, and moved the sword from his neck. He could see the brunette's anger, but the man was good at suppressing it. "I have somewhere I need to be now, so let me pass."

"I do hate to say it, but you are right Wufei... As a gift I'll give you my name in case you're ever interested in a rematch." The brunette leaned in so he could basically whisper his name in the teenager's ear. "Treize Khushrenada... remember that."

Treize turned around and walked away from the teenager leaving him stunned. Everyone knew about Treize Khushrenada, he had once been one of the most powerful men in the city until his company got shut down for him supporting some illegal operations. After a few months of bad publicity, Treize seemed to disappear off the face of the earth, and to find him here... Wufei couldn't really believe what he had heard, but he knew he still needed to get over to the hospital and now unveil the news he had just learned.

----

His day couldn't be going any worse than it was now, as he continued trying to reboot his computer it seemed something had been fried when the lights had gone out. Timothy Maxwell was not the kind of person who liked being behind on his work, and that's exactly what he was at the moment. His coworkers weren't nearly as bothered by it as he was, but then again they weren't relying on this job to support themselves and their teenage sons.

Most of them had husbands or wives that worked just like they do, and that let off some of the pressure about worries of money. He on the other hand was the only source of income his family had, and Duo refused to get a job because he claimed he had better things to do than make fast food for the fat people in the drive-thru. As he continued to type up everything again for his boss, Tim could hear the soothing silence of the office as everyone went to the break room for lunch. He knew he needed to finish this up within the next hour and get home soon.

"You shouldn't work so hard all the time, soon your hair will turn gray and fall out at the rate you're going." A man said from behind Tim, but he didn't bother to look at who it was.

"Please don't bother me right now, I'm busy if you can't tell." He continued typing until he suddenly dawned on him that he knew that voice. He turned around in his chair to see exactly who he had been hoping never to see again. "Zechs... What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to collect the debt you still owe Treize and I. It's long overdue now, but we've decided to take it easy on you by accepting another one as well. Along with Duo we want to have Heero Yuy, as he is quite the interesting one." Zechs smirked at the man as he noticed the glare Timothy was giving him. "Don't look at me like that, this was all _your _doing after all. Well should I say you and Katherine, since she participated in this as well."

Zechs motioned for Tim to stand up, and the man did so knowing what would happen if he didn't. The blonde then gestured towards the door leading out into the hallway, they continued like this all the way out of the office building and into Zechs' car. Tim didn't bother asking where he was being taken because he knew exactly where he would be taken.

He knew this was punishment for his cruel deal with Treize, his former boss, all those years ago. And there was probably no way of escaping out of it like he had before, that and he had sworn never to go to such lengths to get away. At the time he had been so desperate to save Duo from his fate, and instead had probably given him an even worse one.

"Why couldn't you have just left us alone? He's only a teenager... he has so much life ahead of him..."

"You know we won't kill him, but we just desire his life to be with _us_ and not you." Zechs started the car and then looked over at his hostage. "You shouldn't have tried to run away, then Katherine would be alive and your brother wouldn't be so pissed at you right now."

"Shut up Zechs, my family matters are none of your concern. So I'm wondering, are you two still fucking around all the time? And tell me what rock did you go hide under when the company was shut down?"

"You shouldn't be so hasty to anger people, after all you don't know what they'll do when they're pissed at you." Zechs put the car in reverse and began to head out of the parking lot, just as they turned onto the main road there was some sort of explosion from the building behind them. Timothy looked back to see it had been in his office building, and that it was now on fire even with the pouring rain. "I hope you weren't having any office romances or hoping for some promotion."

Tim didn't lose his temper at Zechs, but he wasn't able to hold his tongue completely. "You're a sick bastard Zechs, that hasn't changed even after all those years."

----

"You don't have to protect me Trowa... what if he goes after them and tries to hurt them?" Quatre grabbed his cell phone and was about to dial Heero's cell phone number, but Trowa stopped him.

"No, the man said he would kill you if we interfered!" Trowa hated sacrificing Duo and Heero like he was, but what choice did he have? It was either them or Quatre, and he would always choose his lover. "We're all out of options Quatre! They've outsmarted us and cornered us."

Quatre suddenly felt his temper flare, which was unusual for the good-natured teen, but he couldn't accept what Trowa was trying to tell him. "My life is not more important than theirs Trowa! You can't just decide to leave them clueless and expect me not to try to help them after telling me such horrible things!"

The brunette quieted for a moment and then allowed Quatre to have his phone back. The blonde left the room to call Duo and Heero, but Trowa didn't want Quatre to get caught up in all of this. Not that he was left any choice now, all he could really do now was follow Quatre's lead and attempt to help his friends.

"Why do all of the people I love have to have such a strong sense of justice? Self-sacrifice will amount to nothing once your dead..." Trowa held Catherine's hand and held it gently. "At least I will know you're safe here."

----

**So, was it exciting enough for everyone? I hope it was worth the wait, and I'm sorry it took so long. Lately I've been having a hard time motivating myself to actually sit down and write. So if the chapters take a little longer to come out, that will be why. But I'll try not to take too long, the most I'll make you wait is about a week.**

**Anyways, hope ya'll enjoyed!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	12. Chapter 12

Duo couldn't believe what was happening when Heero began hustling him out the door and into the rain. The news stations didn't usually put up phony stories like _that_ in order to get ratings, but they have sometimes been known to fudge the truth a bit... So all he hoped is that this was a case where everyone was still too confused to figure out everything.

"Duo snap out of it, and get in the car!" Heero ushered the teen into somebody's car as he intended to steal it. He knew it wasn't a good thing to do, but at the moment he knew the owner wouldn't be driving anywhere with this horrible rain which just refused to let up. The rain had began to flood some streets that were lower, but Duo's home was slightly placed on a tiny hill so most of the water just drained off into the grass.

Quatre's call had been the thing that had made Heero go and turn on the news, and that's where he first saw the story about the building that somebody had detonated a bomb in. They had begun to call of names of people either dead or missing, when Heero had heard Duo's father called amongst them. The teen hadn't heard Duo finish up his conversation with Quatre until he noticed Duo watching the television too.

What the blonde had called to tell him had been a tragic thing and Duo felt terrible that something had happened to Trowa's sister Catherine because of him. But when he watched what had happened to his father's building, he just felt this sick feeling as he knew his father could be dead... and it was probably because of _him_.

There were so many thoughts whirling through Duo's head all at once, but the only memory that he could focus on was the morning he had woken up to find his mother dead on the floor... The feeling he was feeling now was the same as back then, and he could almost feel himself about to throw up just like back then as well.

"Duo are you alright?!" Heero saw Duo fall to his knees and the teenager just began to sob as he muttered a bunch of incoherent nonsense. Duo had never looked so helpless that Heero could remember him, as his amethyst eyes were wide and lost as tears trailed down his pale face.

Just looking at Duo the way he was now and comparing him to the embarrassing moment they had had just a few minutes before... it made Heero feel the need to protect Duo from the world. Heero knelt down and embraced his friend, "Duo please don't do this... We have to go _now_ to see if your father is alright, this time we can't be too late. I know this is a bad time to say this, but... I love you Duo Maxwell. So for my sake please go back to your normal self."

Duo appeared to listen for a moment as his sobs slowly began to die away, but the teenager still had a distant look in his eyes. He didn't appear capable of dealing with being alone, even with Heero it would be a long time before he got over the death of his father. No matter how much they argued and fought, he knew there would never be another Timothy Maxwell in his life that he could call Father, and that's what was destroying him the most.

He looked at Heero and nodded to signal he was ready to leave. Heero had helped him up and then went outside into the rain to ready the car for their departure, and that's how they had ended up where they were now. Duo was sitting in the passenger seat just gazing out the window, watching the rain drops splatter against the glass. Suddenly he had a horrible vision of his father being splattered against the window of his office, and looked away.

"Heero... do you think he's dead? Is it going to be all my fault again?" Duo looked at Heero expecting an answer, but with that vulnerability being shown to him Heero couldn't answer. "Perhaps if I had died from falling off of that roof... maybe Dad would still be alive..."

"Don't say things like that Duo, your death would've only made your father miserable as well. Not to mention Quatre, Wufei, Trowa, and I..." Heero had never heard Duo call his father, Dad, ever before and it had made him even more hesitant to answer. "Besides Duo, if he's _your_ father... he must have some sort of knack for surviving."

The two of them sat in an uncomfortable silence as Heero struggled to get them through high flood water in such a tiny car. It was probably impossible to make it much farther in this little vehicle which just wasn't made to drive through floods, but Heero promised Duo that this time they wouldn't be too late.

And he intended to make sure that promise was fulfilled.

----

Wufei had somehow made it to the hospital safely, and didn't bother asking the receptionist for the room or floor because Quatre had already told him beforehand. As he waited impatiently for the elevator to reach his floor he began to feel angry at how him being in a rush made the elevator seem to go even slower than usual. As the light flashed the number three and there was a light _ding _sound, to tell him he had reached his destination.

He walked down the hall with big strides, and then softly knocked on the door knowing better than to disturb Catherine or any other patients. After doing so, only for the sake of being polite, Wufei opened the door and was greeted by two pairs of expectant eyes.

"Well, I think I've found out who's behind this whole mess. Does the name Treize Khushrenada ring a bell?"

"Didn't he run some illegal underground operation years ago?" Quatre pondered as he tried to remember if that was the right man. "I thought he disappeared a couple years back after police discovered everything."

"Well, apparently _he's_ the one who's been causing all of us trouble searching for Duo. I'm not entirely sure of everything yet, but I _am_ certain that it is Treize. He actually had the nerve to disturb me in my house to ask Duo's whereabouts, but I didn't give him any specific information." Wufei grabbed a nearby chair and sat in it, "Please tell me one of you has a laptop or something."

Neither of them had been anticipating using a laptop or anything like that, and so they of course didn't have one on them. Quatre had an idea though as they might be able to find an 'available' computer somewhere in the hospital, "Why do we need a laptop exactly?"

"I want to get more information on Treize and find out whoever his brother is. That's the only way we'll be able to put a stop to all of this crazy shit." Wufei and Quatre stood up together and were about to leave when Trowa stopped them.

"But wait, the man who was harassing Catherine and I was a blonde man. And from what I recall from the pictures of Treize Khushrenada he's _not_ blonde at all." Trowa silently bid a farewell to his sister as he stood up with the other two. "Could that man have possible been the brother Treize mentioned?"

Quatre opened the door and began to walk out as he pondered Trowa's idea about the man who had attacked Trowa being Treize's brother. "So obviously they're working together, all to find Duo, but what we need to find out is _why_. What in the world is making those two so determined to find Duo and perhaps even Heero..."

----

Sharpe had been watching the procedure as the coroner tested his body for all types of chemicals and such, but after a few hours there was still no trace of the man's death. Eventually the coroner cut open Bennit's chest to examine his heart when the woman noticed one of the arteries around the heart was completely severed, but even though it was cleanly sliced there was no evidence of it being physically possible by a normal human being. That, and looking at the area where it was cut, both pieces of the artery were perfectly healed almost making the artery look perfectly normal.

"I have to tell you officer, there is _no_ possible way that this could've been done by any person or disease known to man... But apparently it is possible by something, yet it's impossible for me to be able to figure out what it is." The coroner was showing Sharpe up close exactly what she meant, and the man couldn't help but agree.

"So tell me, do you believe his death was instant?" Sharpe couldn't believe it had happened to Randall of all people, but there was no denying it now.

The coroner stopped for a minute to ponder the question, "I don't suppose it was _instant_, but he couldn't have been alive for very long to suffer from it."

Sharpe tried hard not to imagine Randall's pregnant wife, and the child who would be born without ever knowing what a great man their father had been. The only thing Sharpe did know at that moment was that, _this_ was not some freak thing of nature or disease, it had to have been done by a human somehow.

_How_ was a good question, but he preferred not to worry about that. The only thing his mind could focus on now was finding out who did it, and making sure they got what they deserved for it, even if he did break the law by doing so.

"Now please officer, if you're done I need to do some further testing just in case I overlooked the real cause of death..." The coroner didn't even believe her own words, because both of them knew that was just complete bullshit to force Sharpe to leave.

"If you do find anything, please contact me with the results."

Sharpe left that room feeling an unusual amount of anger, and what was most likely hatred as well for the person who murdered Bennit. He didn't have long to himself though as his cell phone began to ring in his pocket, and when he read the caller ID he found that it was Tim Maxwell calling him.

"Hello? Mr. Maxwell are you there?" Sharpe answered somewhat rudely, but was surprised when a voice he didn't recognize answered.

"Actually my name is Maxwell, but I don't really feel the need to let you know my name yet. I suppose you've found your dead partner by now, right?"

He stopped in the middle of the hallway as he couldn't believe his ears, "Who are you? And how do you know about him?"

"Well I was the one who _killed_ him after all, so I suppose I should know he's dead. And as I already told you, I don't feel it the right time to reveal my name." The voice answered back in a somewhat mocking way. "I just wanted you to know the reason I killed your partner, I suppose, but if you're not interested in hearing the reason I'll just hang up now."

The man didn't say anything as he felt his rage begin to explode, "Who the fuck are _you_ to go around killing people?! You didn't have the right to decide to end his life for no fucking reason!"

"Oh, but I did have a reason. Bennit did a very naughty thing by attempting to take justice into his own naive hands, and push Duo off that roof to kill the boy. The man was probably sick of your little bluff of having no evidence, and finally took it upon himself to kill Duo Maxwell in an effort to give him punishment that your court would never be able to."

----

**Another twist! But hopefully these chapters are beginning to wrap up some of the mysteries and questions in the series, so that ya'll won't be left wondering about certain little things throughout the story. Well, I must say now that the story will be ending fairly soon. Most likely there will be only about four or five more chapters to this series, and perhaps a sequel if the ending isn't quite satisfying enough.**

**Hope everyone enjoyed!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	13. Chapter 13

"He never would have done that! Randall was just like me, he believed in fair justice no matter how hard it was for us to achieve the proper punishment for criminals." Sharpe was making his way towards the front of the building as he tried to think of a plan on how to trace the call.

Nobody spoke for a moment from the other end of the call, and it made Sharpe nervous that the man had hung up. But the voice eventually said something after a few seconds of thought, "I suppose that's how all of you law enforcers think, that you follow the rules without any slip-ups. But you are very wrong indeed, as you people tend to take your little power a little too seriously. Such as what you were doing, claiming to have evidence on Duo Maxwell in order to get him to confess, because of some anonymous tip that Randall Bennit had called in the office himself."

He didn't step out into the rain which was slowly beginning to lighten up, but it was still heavily pouring and continuing to make the streets flood.

"You know," the man sounded thoughtful for a minute. "Bennit's plan was well thought out considering how he isn't the brightest man. To call in and give you guys false information, to force the investigation to open up again and give him the chance to kill Duo Maxwell to avenge his mother as well as Katherine Maxwell. I suppose you didn't figure out why Bennit was so touchy about the case, did you?"

Sharpe listened carefully as he hadn't really noticed Randall's behavior change the slightest bit once they were on the case, but for some reason he couldn't make himself stop from being sucked into what the man was saying. "What do you mean avenge his mother?"

"His mother was murdered in a similar fashion, and Bennit must've seen this as his chance to make sure nobody ever killed their own mother ever again. Your partner's mother was murdered only by accident by his older brother, but Randall had never seen it as accidental-" The voice stopped its story abruptly, as he seemed to be struggling with something. "Sorry about that... As I was saying, your partner Randall could never forgive his brother for murdering their own mother and made sure to get revenge. It's almost surprising he works as a police officer now, and none of you even knew about any of it because he was so good at covering his tracks. He was out to murder Duo even though that boy didn't murder Katherine. I think I've told you enough for now though..."

"No! Don't hang up!" Sharpe yelled at his phone as the line went dead. "Damn... This is too much information... It can't be true..."

The man went outside to find that the rain had become nothing more than a very faint drizzle at the moment, he took the chance to get into his own car and was going to have to go back to the Maxwell house as there was nothing he could really do there.

He had to be careful about what roads he chose as some of them were flooded, but for the most part it wasn't too bad as he drove on higher roads. As he turned into the driveway he noticed that the other car was no longer in there.

"Shit! Where would those damn teenagers go at a time like this?!" Sharpe jumped out of his car, and rand up to the door. He took a minute as he fumbled with his key and the lock, as he burst into the house he found the television still on the news channel. He saw why Duo had left now, as apparently someone had bombed his father's work place... He turned around and slammed the door behind him, and ran back to his car. He had to make sure to get there before Duo did, as there was a chance that man was waiting for him to go to the scene.

Sharpe couldn't really be sure, but all of the strange events seemed to be occurring around Duo Maxwell and his father. Bennit tried to kill Duo, and then he ended up dead... And during the time he was distracted by Randall's death, Tim Maxwell's work is bombed forcing Duo to go there out in the open.

Obviously that guy wasn't sure where Duo's home was... so his only chance to get Duo would be when he was out in the open. He wasn't able to get Duo while at school either, because of all the people, but everyone would be too distracted with the injured or dead now. Giving anyone the opportunity to just grab someone like Duo and get out of there unnoticed.

----

The three of them were able to find a computer within the hospital that a nurse had left unattended, apparently the rain was causing a lot of major accidents requiring all of the help they could get from the hospital staff. Quatre quickly searched for Treize through easily accessible search sites, but after a few minutes of nothing he knew he would have to hack into someone else's database in order to get the information they needed.

"Who would know about Treize though? The police never knew anything because he kept himself so excluded from the public eye." The blonde suddenly got an idea as he searched for the name of Treize's company, and then searched for any website leading to the old database. "It's a long shot, but I might be able to hook up to the old server of that company... what was its name?"

"I remember it had his surname in the company's name, it was something like Khushrenada Inc." Wufei was watching closely as Quatre searched for that name and got several results, "Are you sure you can hack into the database of a company that's been shut down for years?"

"I'm not completely sure, but there's always a chance that nobody bothered to shut that down. What I mean is if Treize is still around I'm sure he managed to preserve all of his information on his old server..." Quatre continued attempting to hack until he finally got too frustrated by not reaching the page he wanted to.

Trowa leaned down and observed Quatre as he unrelentingly tried to figure out the password. "Try Maxwell."

Quatre stopped and looked at Trowa, but then turned back and tried it. The computer told them the password was incorrect once again, and then Trowa had another idea.

"Try Katherine this time."

"What makes you think that could possibly be the password?" Wufei asked skeptically.

"Before all of this shit started happening with that blonde man, I went and did some of my own research on Duo's mother... it turns out that she was a former employee of Khushrenada just as Duo's father was. I didn't think it was that important at the time, but now I think that's the only connection the Maxwell family has with Treize Khushrenada." Trowa had even made Quatre look up at him with that last statement. "Or at least it is the only connection we can make between them for now..."

Quatre furiously typed up the Maxwell name as the password, it worked just as Trowa had guessed which made Wufei and Quatre wonder. If they were only employees, then why would their name be the password to an important database? Was there some deeper connection between the Khushrenada family and the Maxwell family?

None of the spoke as the blonde proceeded to pull up a list of employees, just as Trowa said Duo's parents were both listed as scientists/testers for the company's products which were left unnamed by whoever had decided to input all of the data. As they continued to browse through the whole data bank, there was nothing of any particular interest or that made any of them suspicious.

"What kind of products did Treize's company produce anyway?"

"I heard it was some over-the-counter medicine and such things that any person could buy from the grocery store." Quatre stated as he looked throughout all the files that he could access until he reached a webpage that had a picture of Treize and a taller blonde man standing side by side. "Trowa, is this the man who you saw at your house?"

Trowa didn't say anything, but by the way the usually calm teen glared at the man in the photo with such animosity... he knew for sure that it was indeed the man who had attacked Trowa and Catherine. "So what's the man's name? It must say somewhere who he is and what their relationship is."

"It says here that his name is Milliardo... but uses the nickname Zechs in public... Apparently the Khushrenada family adopted him when he was about fifteen, and the two of them have always gotten along as if they were real brothers. That's all it really says about the two of them, besides they were partners in owning the company and in charge of what went on."

Wufei leaned against the wall behind the computer and crossed his arms across his chest, "Now the only thing we have to figure out is _what_ those two were doing within the company that was so illegal and inhumane according to some rumors I've heard. As far as I can tell, there is a lot that they could've done inside a company so big and be able to cover it up... Not to mention the Khushrenadas' influence on this city. So then who would rat them out?"

----

Zechs sighed with mock concern, "So what if Treize and I have a little fun once in a while? It would only be considered gross if we were true biological brothers, but the fact remains that we're only related by a certificate of adoption."

He was seething and was wondering if he'd be able to hold himself back from murdering the blonde man right that minute. "Why the hell won't you just leave us alone? You've already... killed my wife just because we refused Treize. I would never allow my son to fall into the hands of you fucking monsters!"

"My dear Timothy... you really don't have much of a choice, now do you? Her death only came about because of the irresponsibility of your actions along with Katherine's. Denying Treize was the worst thing the two of you could've done, and she's paid the price for both of you." Zechs didn't bother making it difficult for Tim to figure out where they were going, because he knew the man had already figured it out before he had got into the car. "It was the deal you agreed upon, remember? Doesn't this place give you such a feeling of nostalgia?"

Tim didn't bother to look at the building which he had worked at for several years, there were no memories that he wanted to recall from those years of _servitude_. The only good thing that had happened inside of that building had been meeting Katherine.

"Get out, I've made sure to set everything up for you to make sure you're thoroughly punished for your actions." As Zechs ushered Tim to the door he suddenly leaned in and whispered, "And don't worry about giving your son to us. We've already made sure that he'll come straight here after hearing about what happened to _you_."

----

**Another chapter closer to our finale! The way it's going I might have to continue a sequel for it, but that's a big MAYBE, no guarantees or anything. Hope the wait wasn't too long for you guys, and I hope it was a great chapter!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	14. Chapter 14

Arriving at the scene, there were several people just standing by and watching the police curiously. Even after being shooed off many times, the pedestrians just ended up gathering again so the police just gave up trying to make them go away. Duo and Heero were able to see the outside of the building was charred from a fire that must've died out because of the rain, and there was glass all over the parking lot below along with all the people either watching or trying to get everything organized.

Heero didn't bother trying to get into the parking lot itself, but just left the car parked on the road. Duo had already jumped out of the car before Heero had stopped, and jumped the yellow tape surrounding the vicinity of the bombed building.

"Tell me what happened! Have you found any survivors?!" Duo surprised the cops as they hadn't noticed the teenager's approach.

"This is a restricted area, and we'd appreciate if you would please back away from the area. It's too dangerous for a bunch of people as there's a chance the building may collapse or there could be a chance of a second bomb in there." A burly officer warned Duo, "I'm sorry to say we have not found any survivors yet, but if you're a family member there are others waiting over there."

He pointed to a group of people gathered under some type of awning, and another officer was taking down names of their relatives who may have been inside. Duo wasn't going to wait around like them though, he knew he needed to make sure for himself that his father wasn't in there. He ran towards the entrance of the building and evaded capture of any of the police standing around.

Pushing threw the now glassless front doors, Duo made his way past the front desk and to where he knew the emergency stairs were. As he made his way up the stairs, all his thoughts were concentrating on one slim hope.

_'Please be alive...'_

Once on the same floor as his father's office, he immediately went towards the area his father worked in, frightened of what he might see there. But as he looked around, there was no sign of a burned body or anything, and so Duo headed towards the room that everyone had eaten lunch in the last time he'd came. As he began to draw near, he could see that room had gotten the worst of the fire and was still possible on fire as smoke was pouring out of the room.

"Shit!" Duo didn't really think clearly as he began to run towards the room. When he made it to the door way he began to shout, "Dad?! Is anyone alive?!"

There was no immediate response, but then he heard a soft groaning from a man beside the door. Duo could see severe burns and a lot of blood, but amazingly the man was still conscious. The teenager took a deep breath and then held it, not wanting to inhale much more smoke, he hastily reached for the man. He grabbed onto the guy's arms, and began to drag him out of the room and into the hall.

After putting some distance between them and the smoking room, Duo knelt beside the man he had propped up against a wall. "Hey, you work close with my father, right? Timothy Maxwell?"

The man groaned and then murmured incoherently, "He and another man left for lunch I think... Please help me..."

Just as the man had said that, Duo could hear people coming up the stairs. "Don't worry, they'll take care of you... I'm so sorry, but I have to find my father."

He turned around and came face-to-face with Heero. Duo felt Heero wrap his hand around Duo's wrist, and then he was pulled along by the calmer of the two teenagers into another room.

Once the police officers and firemen went into the smoking room or else went to the man's aid, Heero tugged Duo and the two of them managed to get down a floor unnoticed. This continued until they were able to escape through the back of the building where Heero stopped abruptly and whirled around to scold Duo.

"What the hell were you thinking?! That roof could've collapsed and you could have _died_! We're capable of dying at any time in any circumstance, and I thought _you_ of all people would understand that!" Heero regretted having to remind Duo of his past, but it was the only way he would get through the stubborn teenager. As he began to calm down some he tried not to get agitated again, "Listen, let's get out of here. That guy up there said your Dad had already left when this happened, so we know he's alright."

Duo nodded, but didn't say anything. He felt ashamed of his behavior, but he couldn't say he really regretted doing it. If he hadn't, then he wouldn't have known that his father wasn't in that room of dying or injured people, Duo felt himself chewing on his bottom lip almost like a child.

He stopped when Heero leaned towards him and kissed him softly, "Now we have to find your father."

Duo's cell phone chose to ring right then, and so the teenager answered without bothering to check who it was. This was a grave mistake as he heard the one thing he hadn't expected...

"Hello Duo, you'd best listen to me if you want your father to stay alive."

Heero seemed able to tell something was wrong, but Duo refused to give him the phone. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Isn't it obvious Duo? Your father and I went out for lunch, and then that horrible bomb went off. I wasn't about to let him go back there when it was so dangerous." There was mock concern as the man continued to speak, "Believe me Duo, he's much safer here with me than there."

"Leave him the fuck alone! Where are you?!"

"I'm sure you remember the old building called Khushrenada Inc., right? So just head over there and you'll get to see him again. Oh, and bring Heero with you, I wouldn't want him to miss out on the party."

The line went dead after that, and Duo snapped the phone shut.

----

The nurse was pretty pissed off once she returned to her desk to see three teenage boys on her work computer. She shooed them all away and warned them if they did it again, she would make them leave the hospital. Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei had feigned playing an innocent online game, and that made sure the nurse would have no idea of what they were _really_ doing on her computer.

"So what are we supposed to do? All we know is that Zechs was the one who attacked Trowa and Catherine, and that he's Treize's adopted brother. It's good information, but it won't lead us to them. Or tell us why they're going through all this trouble just for Duo." Wufei pulled out his sword from behind the bed Catherine was sleeping in.

Trowa apparently was making sure his sister wasn't in any sort of pain, "I guess all we can do is go to Khushrenada Inc. ourselves and take a look around."

"I doubt they would hole up in there, the first place somebody would think to look was there." Wufei answered skeptically as he leaned against the wall.

"No," Quatre was observing Trowa as he spoke. "Actually that might be the first place they'd hide, considering the building is shut down and supposedly no one can get in. Not to mention it's a very familiar place for them, and most people tend to go back to places that they feel comfortable in. I say we should go have a look, even if we don't find _them_ we might find something else helpful."

The three of them gathered up whatever they had brought to the hospital room, and then Quatre and Wufei left to wait in the lobby. Trowa stayed behind for a few more minutes in order to leave a note stating that he went to Quatre's home for the night, and then said goodbye to his sister.

"I promise I'll be back Catherine, no matter what happens."

----

He hated the place even more now than he had back then, all of the horrible things he had done... And those things had all been done without a second thought until he met Katherine. It was hard to believe she had also been working there, but she hadn't been aware of the true experiments the company did.

As Tim was forced to walk through the place, it brought back the memory of when him and Katherine had first met.

Katherine had worked in the ignorant part of the company, where they actually made the products that were sold at stores across the country. She hadn't been aware of what went on in the basement levels, where Tim worked. The first time they'd actually met had been an uneasy confrontation, as she was dating Treize at the time and had decided to have a look around the basement where she'd never been before.

----

_Tim had been preparing to go home when the elevator door opened to reveal the young woman. Her amethyst eyes had such an innocent look that immediately drew him in, but when she attempted to step off the elevator he stopped her._

_"You should know only authorized employees are allowed down here." He stepped into the elevator while still making sure she was unable to leave. _

_"Why is it such a big deal? I work here just like you do, so I should have automatic authorization to go where I need to go." Katherine's long brunette hair wasn't tied back and was allowed to hang free by her waist. _

_"Just because you're dating the boss doesn't give you authorization. Besides, nothing of any real interest goes on down here." He tried not to sound too harsh, but she was too stubborn to accept his answer._

_She was glaring at him when she suddenly caught the name on his ID card. Katherine didn't reveal to him at first that she'd seen his name, and then asked him in a thoughtless manner. "So you're Treize's brother? I'd always heard that he had two brothers, but the only one he ever mentioned to me was his adopted one Zechs."_

_"My name's Takashi Khushrenada, not Treize's brother."_

_"Sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! Please don't be mad at me!" She looked desperate not to be ignored by him, and for some reason he was unable to. "But I was just surprised to finally meet you after he always dodged my questions about you, I guess I got the idea I would never meet you." _

_"I'm not mad at you... I just get annoyed by everyone constantly calling me Treize's brother." He couldn't believe how childish she seemed to him, and he didn't want to know what would happen to her if she ever found out the experiments they did in the lower levels. "Are you off for the rest of the day?"_

_Katherine smiled at him, "Why are you offering dinner?"_

_"May-maybe, would you accept my offer?" He could feel himself blushing slightly._

_"Of course, to be honest I'm not really that into your brother... so it'll be our secret, ok?" She held out her pinky, and it confused him. "Haven't you ever made a pinky swear?"_

_"No... what's that?"_

_"When I was younger we always use to make pinky swears whenever there was a secret we wanted to make sure was kept. All you have to do is wrap your pinky around mine, and then you can never tell." _

_He did as she instructed, and their secret never left either of their lips._

_----_

"Brings back memories, doesn't it Takashi?" Zechs continued forcing Tim towards the elevators. "Treize is waiting for you on floor number twelve. I advise you go straight there, but I have some business to attend to."

"You leave Duo alone!" Tim didn't think clearly as he attacked Zechs, the blonde man was caught off guard and didn't have time to react. "You bastards are the ones who killed my wife! And now you're trying to steal Duo from me!"

Zechs threw the man off and started getting up, "You're wrong Takashi, _you_ are the one who gave Duo to us in return for stealing Katherine Maxwell from Treize. But you never upheld the deal, instead you changed your name and took on the surname Maxwell. You were always a coward, always ready to hide just avoid a confrontation."

Timothy stood up shakily as his body wasn't capable of handling all this pain, "I might've been a coward then... But I'm not going to let you two ruin my life all over again."

"You think you have any choice now? I already know your body is too weak to handle my powers, all those experiments on your body made it more vulnerable since they didn't know exactly what they were doing... but when _you_ worked on my body you knew exactly how to make me perfect." Zechs laughed at the man as he struggled, "Won't it be wonderful to die at the hands of your own creation?"

----

**Now a flashback into the past to start putting the pieces together. This was a somewhat difficult chapter to write, only because I don't want to reveal too much at once. So I'm hoping it wasn't too little for you guys as well because of me being so cautious. Anyways... hope ya'll enjoyed!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	15. Chapter 15

Quatre and Trowa were sitting in the back seat of Wufei's car as they headed towards Khushrenada Inc. The three of them had created an unbelievable tension in the vehicle as none of them were sure of what to expect when they arrived at the building. There was only one thing Trowa was really thinking of though... and that was how he would get his revenge for Catherine.

There was no way that Zechs would get away with what he did, but Trowa couldn't predict how Quatre would react when he found out his intentions. The brunette knew Quatre would understand his anger, but the blonde had never been one to condone violence for any reason.

"This is the place." Wufei stopped the car outside in the back parking lot where they all noticed another car was parked as well, but they didn't really take much notice of it.

Immediately Quatre tried the door to see how strong the lock was, and when he deemed it hopeless to try that entrance the group proceeded to look for another entrance.

"Hey guys, I found a door that's already open!" Quatre called from around the side of the building in a narrow alley. The three of them went inside with caution, even if they didn't expect anyone to really be there, there was always the chance someone could pop out of nowhere.

As they were scanning every inch of the hallway, there was suddenly a man's voice yelling at them from the end of the hall. "Which of you is Wufei Chang?"

Trowa recognized the voice immediately, and Wufei and Quatre noticed when he suddenly had a furious look in his eye. The blonde teen grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear, "Wufei wants to go, so let him go Trowa."

Wufei stepped ahead of them, knowing that he would get the chance to have a rematch with Treize. Well, he didn't _know_, but he suspected it and would make sure to win if he had to. He walked toward the man he could now see was Zechs, but the odd thing was that he looked slightly beaten. He continued walking past the man and saw Treize by an elevator. The brunette gestured for the Chinese teenager to come over.

The teen didn't hesitate for a second as he made his way towards Treize, he watched the man get on the elevator and wait for him. As he got into it Treize immediately asked, "I suppose you want a rematch?"

Wufei didn't say anything as the elevator doors closed and they began their ascent to the tenth floor. He had been hoping for a rematch, but he hadn't been expecting to have to leave his friends behind with a man like Zechs. As the elevator dinged to tell them they'd arrived, Treize allowed Wufei to step out first.

"Before we start, I suppose you'd like more answers to all of your questions? I'm sure you haven't found any real answers by hacking into our database as you'd hoped, because our database has been cleaned of any evidence of what our workers _really_ did every day." Treize sat down in a cozy chair and let Wufei sit directly across from him. "What's your first question?"

"It's the same as when we had our duel, I want to know why you and Zechs are so persistent to get Duo." Wufei was observing the room as he asked Treize, but the man didn't seem to mind.

"It's a long story, but I suppose I can tell you." Treize began, "This all started with my brother Takashi-"

"I thought Treize was your brother?"

"No, my _biological_ brother's name is Takashi Khushrenada and he once worked for me. As you know my company makes medicine products, and that's what Katherine's job was when I met her and we began to date. But then she somehow met my brother one day, and he stole her away from me." Treize took a minute to let this sink in for Wufei, and then started up again. "My brother decided to change his name and take her name when they got married, I suppose it was because he hated being associated with our family. Nobody thought much of it, that was until I realized exactly _why_ he had done this. It was in order to sever all ties with me, and to find a way to run from the deal."

"_Duo's_ father is your brother?!" The teen honestly could not believe it, but as he compared the two there were slight resemblances. "Then that means Duo is your nephew..."

"True, true... Though Takashi didn't want to have a son so he swore to me that he would give up their child, for stealing Katherine away from me. She was reluctant to do it at first, but they both realized the kind of influence I had over the city." Treize's fists were clenched as he stood up, "And that's when they decided to rat me out to the police... because they knew with me in prison that they wouldn't have to uphold their end of the deal. Duo was supposed to be this company's _heir_."

----

As they watched Wufei enter the elevator with Treize, Trowa and Quatre now found themselves alone with Zechs. His mere presence sent chills down the blonde's spine as he knew there was something wrong with the man. Quatre knew Trowa must be struggling to hold himself back from attacking the man, as he was sure the brunette wanted nothing more than to make Zechs suffer for attacking his sister.

"Now that he's out of the way and brother is satisfied, I suppose he wouldn't mind if I went ahead and killed you two. After all, the only one he said to leave alive was Wufei Chang, he didn't mention anything about his friends." Zechs smirked, and opened his mouth as if to rant some more but Trowa didn't give him the chance.

The brunette had already launched himself at Zechs, and the man almost didn't have enough time to dodge. Trowa delivered as swift kick to the blonde man's stomach and forced him to fall to the ground. "You talk too much."

Zechs smirked and Trowa watched him carefully, but he couldn't focus as he suddenly felt himself unable to breathe. As if someone was choking him, but there was no one there besides Quatre, Trowa, and Zechs. He struggled as Zechs stood up and laughed at the teenager.

Quatre couldn't figure what Trowa was doing, but he knew _something_ was wrong. He began to run towards Trowa, but the look Trowa gave him made him stop. It was obvious he didn't want any help even in his current condition. Quatre wasn't sure of what he was supposed to do, he didn't want to stand there useless, and that's when he noticed there were already signs of a fight. There was only one door nearby, and he began to head towards it when Zechs called out to him.

"I wouldn't go in there, if you do I'll have to kill you."

It appeared that Trowa had managed to escape whatever force he had been fighting against and attacked the man once more, "Your fight is with me, you don't have time to worry about him."

Quatre took that as a sign to find whatever was being hidden in there, and he did just that. He threw open the door and stepped inside and looked down to find a massive staircase leading down into a dark abyss. It was impossible to see how far down the stairs went or what was down there, but he had come prepared for searching and pulled out a flashlight.

He felt guilty leaving Trowa up there alone with that man, but he knew Trowa wanted his own revenge. As the blonde teen descended down the staircase, he heard someone moan in the darkness, and immediately increased his pace to the point he nearly fell down the rest of the stairs. Once he reached the landing at the bottom he found that there were still no lights on anywhere, and used his flashlight to search the vicinity.

As soon as his flashlight landed on the person, he couldn't believe who he saw. "Mr. Maxwell?! Are you alright?"

Quatre rushed over to the man's aid, and found he had a huge gash in his side that had been bleeding for a while now. There was a huge pool of blood surrounding his body, he only seemed semi-conscious and not coherent enough to figure out who was beside him. Most likely he could only see the blonde hair, and assumed it to be Zechs automatically.

"You fucking bastard..."

"No, Mr. Maxwell it's Quatre. Quatre Winner, your son's friend." He tried to console the man as he took off his shirt to try and use it to apply pressure to the wound. "Did Zechs do this to you?"

"Where's Duo...? Don't let him come here... this is a horrible place, a place nobody should ever see. I regret telling Katherine already... that's why we have to move away." It was obvious to Quatre then that the man was reliving some part of his past, and couldn't get a grasp on reality.

"Duo's safe, you don't have to worry about him anymore."

"Did Katherine hide him somewhere from Treize...?" He looked at the blonde teen with glazed eyes.

Quatre couldn't bring himself to reply as he tried to figure out what he could do to save this man's life.

----

Heero had tried hard to convince Duo that going there would be a bad idea, and that Duo should just let him go. But no matter what he had said or warned his friend of, it didn't seem to matter to Duo in any way. Heero knew he was only being irrational because his father was in danger, and being the only family Duo had left... it would be too much for Duo if he lost his other parent.

"We're here Duo... are you sure you want to confront them?" Heero watched Duo's cold expression, and saw a flicker of hesitation but then it disappeared.

"I can't lose him Heero... He may be an asshole, but he's my father and all I have left." Duo looked over at the other teen, "God I'm such a fucking wimp..."

Heero could see Duo struggling internally as there was this immense fear of meeting these tormenters of his, and of maybe finding his own father dead. That's why Heero grabbed Duo and kissed him softly, hoping to convey his support through the gesture. He didn't really know of any other way to show Duo that he would be there for him, no matter what happened or will happen.

As they parted lips, the two stepped out of the car and walked up to the front of the building where they saw a car parked. Duo walked over to it and looked inside, "It's my father's car."

Together they walked up to the front doors, and pushed them open without any effort. As the doors opened up, they came upon the scene of Zechs and Trowa both of them fighting, and neither of them knew why he was there.

"What the fuck is going on?" Duo asked nobody as he saw Trowa become aware of their presence.

"Wufei went upstairs alone with Treize, and Quatre's down there!" Trowa yelled at them as he tried to focus on his battle.

"I'll go help Wufei, you go help Quatre. I'll come back down here." Heero ran towards the elevators and found them not working. He saw a staircase hidden down the hall, and ran towards it and disappeared.

Duo ran towards the open door and started down the stairs. He could hear who he thought was probably Quatre talking to somebody, and once he got to the bottom he could see the blonde kneeling on the ground. He ran over to him and then he finally caught a glimpse of his father lying on the floor, bleeding horribly out of his side.

"No... there's no fucking way he's dead!"

"He's not dead Duo, but he's bleeding really bad... I don't know if I can do much for him at this rate." Quatre looked up at Duo with guilty eyes, "I'm so sorry Duo, but without any real medical supplies I can't help him any more than this."

----

**Well, I do believe there are only going to be two more chapters after this one, and that will be the end of Living With Sin. I do hope this isn't too much of a letdown for anyone, and I do promise that this will be a good ending unlike some of my other fics have ended. **

**Did this catch anyone off guard, or was it too predictable? (Predictable, right?) In any case, I hope this was a good chapter, and hope everyone enjoyed it.**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	16. Chapter 16

"You're telling me the reason you wanted Duo this whole time was because he was going to be an heir to your company? But it's been shut down for years since you were exposed..." Wufei was trying to piece things together, but there was just something that Treize had yet to explain. "Why would you still want him after your company has been forcibly closed?"

Treize stood up and walked towards one of the huge glass windows, "The public was never told what the police found, right? This company made not only medical products, but I've managed to discover many things about humans that no one else has dared to even try. It may have caused some people to die in this process, but it was well worth it when we continued to advance science as we know it!"

The teen instantly understood what Treize was ranting about now; they had experimented on _people _this whole time. "So then Duo's father ratted you out once he found out what was going on, didn't he? _That's _why you want to get revenge on him."

"No, you've misunderstood me. My brother Takashi was one of the many scientists who did the experiments, but it is true that he was the one to give the police information that led to my company being closed. Katherine had found out and once she did she kept asking Takashi to stop me because it was _inhumane_, or some other nonsense she constantly spouted." The man laughed, "I can't believe I had actually fallen in love with her. She was just another person who couldn't understand the good I was doing for people of the world."

Wufei couldn't take any more of this, Treize had finally shown his true nature, and it was a little too disturbing even for Wufei to listen to. He thought the man had finished talking, but apparently he wasn't done as he continued.

"Right before my brother left, he created Zechs for me and told me that he was my new brother. At the time I didn't quite understand what he was planning on doing, but I was glad to see my brother had done something right for once. Takashi had made something more of this man than anybody had ever done before, but I'm sure he hadn't really intended for Zechs to live." The man began to pace in front of the window as he continued looking out over the city. "Zechs was just a prototype after all, and most wear out quickly but thankfully he didn't. I figured out from that breakthrough that teenagers were much easier than adults to rearrange their DNA and chromosomes to create beings even greater than humans. Duo was not only going to become the heir, but I was going to make him into something greater than even Zechs."

Wufei had stood up without realizing it and began to draw his blade, "You've ranted enough for me to hear everything I needed to. Using your own flesh and blood as just another experiment is sick, and you even used random people just for your psychotic 'breakthroughs'... You're the type of many who doesn't even deserve to live."

Treize said nothing as he turned from the window; a look of amusement was evident as he watched Wufei become even more enraged. He had taken a liking to this young man, and knew that he wasn't going to kill Wufei as he would be a perfect experiment as well. "You're just as interesting as that young man, I believe his name was Heero, which Zechs was talking about. My nephew has continued to bring me more and more test subjects just like his father."

He refused to listen to it any longer, it was just the rambling of a sociopath who thought he could better the world through the loss of human life. The teen waited impatiently as Treize drew out his blade slowly, as he still continued to talk not realizing Wufei didn't care about his side of the story anymore. As soon as the blade was fully drawn, Wufei attacked, his honor had prevented him from killing the man from behind but he would show no more mercy.

Treize was able to continue talking even as Wufei attacked him relentlessly, the man made it seem like parrying Wufei's blade was easy. "Believe me Wufei, you'd be my _favorite_ of all of my experiments."

The Chinese teenager had let his guard down for a mere second when Treize said it, and it gave the man the chance to grab Wufei's chin and steal a quick kiss. This not only shocked, but thoroughly pissed off the teenager even more. As soon as he pulled away from Treize, he slashed at the man and cut Treize deeply across his torso from his shoulder to his stomach.

Treize didn't seemed to be fazed by the injury as he continued to wear a triumphant smirk. Again Wufei attacked, more viciously than before and he began to cut Treize more and more. He only stopped as he was beginning to become exhausted from this fight, Treize had managed to do a fair amount of damage to Wufei as well during their fight.

But Wufei knew the man wouldn't be able to take much more, and his thoughts were proven to be true as Treize fell to the ground. He was on his hands and knees when Wufei towered over him, "You've lost."

"That's true, I have lost... Something that hasn't happened for so many years." Treize grabbed his sword and Wufei jumped away expecting to be attacked, but he wasn't the target Treize had been aiming for. "My death will be the reward for you."

He impaled himself with the blade, straight into his own stomach, and fell to the ground to allow himself to bleed to death. Wufei didn't know what to do, he suddenly felt a sense of panic that he hadn't felt in so long. He ran to the man's side, but wasn't sure what he could do now.

Just a few minutes earlier he had told the man he deserved death, but hadn't wanted the man to take his own life in this manner. This was the cowardly way to die, to kill yourself because you're too scared to face up to what you've done. There wasn't any way Wufei would be able to save him, so he left the man crumpled there on the floor and went back to the elevators knowing that this moment would haunt him forever.

----

Duo knelt beside his father and just looked at the man, he looked so vulnerable that Duo wanted to look away. The sight of such a man who was always in control, had always protected Duo as a child, had always been there for him after his mother was murdered. The teenager regretted all the times he had told the man that he hated him, all the times he had told himself he would be better off alone.

Now the thought of being alone terrified Duo, it made him tremble as he put a hand on his father's. He couldn't manage much more than a whisper, "Please don't leave me... Dad..."

Duo already knew he was crying even before he felt the tears streak down his cheeks, and at that moment he knew it was hopeless. There was nothing that would bring his father back from this state of near-death.

"Duo, don't cry for me... I'm just an old man who got what I deserved for the sins I've committed." Timothy smiled at his son, "I love you, Duo... No matter what anybody tries to say... I've always loved you."

He had grabbed his son's hand before, but now it was limp and lifeless. Duo stood up as he continued to feel tears streaming down. He could hear Quatre trying to comfort him in some way, but the blonde sounded muffled and far away. There was only one thought in his mind now, only one thing was going to satisfy him and he knew he had to do it.

He had come prepared, Duo hadn't expected to use it before, but now he knew exactly what he had to do.

----

Heero had reached the floor he was hoping Wufei was on, and as soon as the doors opened there stood Wufei. The teenager looked exhausted and had a few minor injuries, but didn't say anything to Heero as he stepped into the elevator. As the doors closed Heero wasn't sure what he could say to Wufei, since he had no idea what had happened for sure, though he had a clue.

"He only wanted Duo for some sick experiments... He killed so many people just for some breakthrough in science, and then killed himself." Wufei explained quietly.

The brunette didn't say anything, but this made him worry more about Duo. They were traveling back down to the floor where Duo and Heero had parted ways, and it was a long agonizing ride down.

After a couple of minutes that seemed like hours to Heero they reached the floor they wanted. Just as the doors were opening they heard the noise, something neither of them had been expecting to hear as they rushed out of the elevator.

----

Trowa was trying to land a hit whenever possible, but he now figured out that he couldn't go too close to Zechs for a long period of time. Something about the man was just abnormal, he had powers that Trowa couldn't have even dreamed of. All during their fight the blonde man had been talking about how he was created from just an ordinary teenage boy, much like Trowa, and how it had been the best thing to have ever happened to him.

"Are you sure you're not interested in a body like mine? Powers like mine? If _you_ had the powers you would've been able to protect your sister just as easily as I was able to attack her." Zechs taunted Trowa relentlessly and continued to anger the teenager even more.

What happened to Zechs next hadn't been planned. Or in Trowa's case, it hadn't even been expected. There was suddenly a loud gunshot that echoed throughout the empty area, and three more followed in succession. Zechs fell to his knees as blood began to seep out of the wounds and through his clothing.

Duo stood at the top of the staircase, his hand shaking slightly as he held the gun. "You killed them! You killed my parents you fucking bastard!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Duo could see Heero and Wufei coming around out of the elevator and towards him. The teenager used long strides to get over to where Zechs was and pointed the gun directly at the side of his head.

"What? Are _you_ gonna kill _me_?" Zechs mocked Duo even at gunpoint, "Are you just upset I killed your mommy? And then your daddy? You're pathetic Duo, I can't believe Treize ever wanted anything to do with such a weak person like you."

Zechs stood up even as blood continued to pour from every open wound, he grabbed Duo by the throat and held him up off the ground. This resulted in Duo dropping the gun in an attempt to pry off the man's hand.

"It won't take much to crush your throat, do you want to see?"

Duo's vision began to blur and then it all went black.

----

His eyes opened and he found himself lying on the ground outside where it was still raining. Duo sat up and could now see that there were police officers everywhere and a couple of paramedics examining Wufei only a few feet away. He saw Heero was talking to an officer and started to get up, but had trouble as he quickly felt too dizzy to stand up straight.

He must have made a noise or said something, because Heero turned around then and caught Duo right before he fell.

"You should sit and rest Duo, you're too weak right now." Heero helped Duo sit down gently.

"What's going on? I thought Zechs was..." Duo's eyes widened as he began to remember what happened.

Heero sat down beside Duo, "Zechs is dead Duo. When he began to choke you we all ran to help you, but I was the first one to get there and I grabbed the gun. I shot him in the heart, or close to it, to make sure he stayed dead."

Duo let out a small sigh and then leaned against Heero, needing to be able to feel someone with him.

"He's dead, isn't he?"

Heero was silent for a moment, he seemed hesitant to answer.

"Yes... I'm sorry Duo."

Duo could feel tears again, but tried not to cry. "It's alright... at least I got to say goodbye this time."

----

**I know for some fans you don't want the end to come too fast, but this morning I woke up and I just felt like writing this chapter. This _is not_ the final chapter, but the next chapter will be! I hope this is wrapping up nicely for all of you and it's not getting too weird or anything!**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter (with all the death and depressing things).**

**Please R&R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	17. Chapter 17

**Warning now, there is some smut towards the end. Now you can't say I didn't warn you!**

----

_Three years later..._

----

Duo knew that today was the anniversary of his father's death, but he took today to visit both of his parents' graves. He had carefully laid flowers on top of each grave, he had asked for his father's grave to be buried beside his mother know that's what his father would've wanted.

He was now nineteen and living with Heero in an apartment close to his old neighborhood, but he never visited the old house. That house had once been a home for a happy family, but now it was empty and nobody ever wanted to move in knowing what occurred in the house.

Heero stood silently beside Duo as his lover continued fixing up the graves. He didn't feel awkward being there, the first time they had visited together he had, but Heero was use to it now and knew it was important to Duo. Duo turned away from the graves meaning he was ready to go home, and Heero kissed him softly on the lips.

"Are you sure you're ready to leave? We still have time before the party."

"Yeah, I'm done. They would've hated it if I sat here all day and moped around." Duo grinned and slipped an arm around Heero's waist. "Besides, it is Quatre's birthday and it would be rude to be late!"

"You always make us late anyway, always having to do your hair." Heero stated matter-of-factly.

Duo pretended to look hurt, "I love my hair, thank you very much! And for your info I don't take _that_ long!"

Heero stopped and looked thoughtful for a moment, "You're wrong. The shortest amount of time you've taken is about fifteen minutes on hair _alone_."

"You need a hobby if you time me every day to see how long it takes just to do my hair!" Duo grinned and kissed Heero again, "You're driving by the way, that way we'll be on time for sure."

----

They arrived at Quatre's home, which was like a mansion, but with Quatre's big family it was necessary. Heero and Duo walked up to the doors together and were greeted by one of the blonde's many sisters, who led them to where Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei all were. The five close friends greeted each other and they all sat around in a small circle.

"Happy Birthday Quatre!" Duo hugged the blonde teen who unfortunately hadn't grown too much since he was sixteen.

"How are you guys? It's been so long since we've actually be able to talk." Quatre smiled at his friends.

"Well since you three are so quiet I'll start talking first." Duo glanced at Trowa, Wufei, and Heero, and then began talking about all of the things he'd been doing.

He talked about how he and Heero moved in with each other, how they each had jobs and were looking for college. Duo also talked about how much he wanted a kitten, but Heero wouldn't let them get another one because they'd already adopted a fat older cat.

After a while of listening to the animated teen talk, Wufei leaned over and whispered in Heero's ear. "Does he talk this much all the time?"

Heero nodded silently.

"How do you live with it?"

As far as Wufei remembered, Duo had been this way in middle school, but during high school he'd talk more but not this much. It was sort of a nice change though, it meant that Duo was happier than he'd been in a long time, and as much as Wufei hated to admit it he liked listening to Duo ramble.

After Duo had finished telling Quatre every little detail he could think of, Wufei talked about what he'd been up to. He was dating a young woman for almost five months now, just got into his own preferred college, and already had a decent job going for him.

Trowa's sister, Catherine, had gotten married three weeks ago and was on her honeymoon, and he was living on his own now. He didn't actually mention that him and Quatre were dating, but everyone already knew of that since this would be their fourth year together.

Quatre was already taking on the family business while juggling school on the side, and about three of his sisters were about to get married.

The five had had pretty normal lives after that day three years ago, where both Treize and Zechs died. There had been a long trial over whether they would be found guilty as responsible for the murders, but they hadn't been found guilty. It was obvious that Treize had killed himself and Zechs' death was purely in self-defense.

Police were also able to find evidence of Zechs murdering Katherine Maxwell, and so Duo was finally able to have closure of the case.

Timothy Maxwell's funeral had been bigger than Duo could've ever imagined as there were several family members from his mother's side there who hadn't even called for a year or more. Even some of his co-workers, that had survived the bombing came to mourn, and a few of their old family friends.

Quatre's party ended around midnight that night, but Trowa, Wufei, Heero, and Duo didn't leave until around two that morning.

----

Heero had decided to drive them home since Duo had a couple of drinks that he shouldn't have. He was practically falling asleep by the time Heero pulled into the parking lot and parked, "Duo wake up, we're home."

Duo sat up and opened the car door, forgetting to take off his seatbelt. Heero undid the seatbelt and then Duo got all the way out. He grinned at his lover and then attached himself to Heero's arm, not caring about some of the odd looks he was getting. They made it to the elevator until Duo couldn't contain himself anymore.

He wrapped his arms around Heero's neck and pulled the taller teen into a fierce kiss. Heero returned the kiss allowing his tongue to slip into Duo's mouth. "We should wait until we get to our room."

"I don't care, it's not like neighbors haven't heard us have sex before, what's the difference if they see us making out?" Duo teased Heero before recapturing his mouth again. As Heero continued trying to break their kiss, Duo grinded his erection against Heero's.

The taller young man finally managed to break away long enough suddenly grab Duo's legs and pick him up. He carried him to their apartment; all the while Duo was nipping at Heero's ear and neck making Heero fumble with the trying to put the key in the lock. Luckily none of their neighbors came out since it was so late, and they made it into the apartment without anyone seeing them.

Heero didn't bother locking the door because he knew Duo wouldn't be patient for much longer. He put Duo down on their couch and threw off his shirt while Duo proceeded to do the same. Heero leaned in towards him and began to tease Duo by kissing his stomach gently as he traveled down towards the waistband of his pants.

Since he was slightly intoxicated, Duo fumbled with the zipper of his pants to the point Heero got too impatient and unzipped it himself. Already finding Duo with an erection wasn't a big shock, but the young man didn't seem to be expecting Heero mouth consuming his sex.

He grabbed ahold of Heero's shoulders for some support as Heero continued to please him. Moaning out his lover's name made him go a little faster, so Duo continued to do so until he could feel himself about to climax.

Heero stopped abruptly and pulled away, smirking at the look of astonishment Duo gave him.

"Wh-why'd you stop?"

"I have an ulterior motive, that's _why_." Heero slipped off his own pants and grabbed their 'special' bottle of hand lotion from a nearby table. He began to lube himself up slowly, torturing Duo almost to the point he couldn't contain himself, but made sure not to let Duo get any satisfaction just yet. "You never did have patience."

"Now's _not_ a great moment to be taking your fucking time!" Duo was having a hard time being angry as he continued watching Heero. As soon as he felt Heero begin to prep him, he didn't know how much more he could take. "Will you just do it?!"

"The last thing I want is for you to complain about being too sore to get up tomorrow because of _your_ impatience." Heero connected with Duo, but pinned Duo's hands above his head not allowing him to help himself.

They created a sort of rhythm, but it didn't take long for either of them to reach their climax together. Heero could already see Duo falling asleep and made sure to bring an extra washcloth with him when he returned from the bathroom. He had learned the first time he'd had sex with Duo that the last thing you want to wake up to in the morning is all of the stickiness.

Duo murmured his thanks as he continued to drift off to sleep, and Heero carried the young man to their bed.

"Goodnight Duo," Heero kissed Duo's lips, and felt his lover try and fail at returning the kiss.

"I love you Heero..." Duo was already asleep before Heero could even reply, but the look of peace was enough to make Heero leave.

It had been hard for them after everything they'd discovered and went through... but somehow they had managed to work out their love. Heero was thankful for that as he knew what Duo's and his fate could've been if they hadn't met up that day; if Heero hadn't been so intent on getting Duo's attention.

He slumped on the couch and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels as he came upon some documentary. Heero couldn't remember what time he fell asleep or what he was doing, but the next morning he woke up to Duo curled up on top of him like a cat. Both of them had managed to somehow fit onto that tiny sofa (which thankfully he had cleaned off before falling asleep).

They stayed like that, as Heero just enjoyed the moment of peace with Duo.

----

**Was it a horrible ending? I really hope it wasn't! I can't tell if it's too corny of an ending or if it's just bad, or if... or if it's actually decent? I would _love_ now more than ever to hear what everyone thinks of the story it's ending, and whatever else you want to mention about Living With Sin. If it isn't a satisfying enough conclusion to this series, feel welcome to tell me because I'll rewrite it if necessary.**

**Anyways, this is the final chapter of this series but not the end of my Heero/Duo/Heero fanfiction! Keep a lookout for more updates coming soon, and if you're interested check out my older series Vampire's Servant. The sequel to that series is coming out soon too if you guys want some reading material.**

**Hope you enjoyed this final chapter!**

**Please R&R!**

**Shari Maxwell**

**Again, thanks to all you readers who stuck with this story until the end!**


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